RUSD Investment Bank Inc., part of the
Jeddah-based RUSD Group, said it plans to this year introduce
three Islamic funds managing a combined $300 million in
Malaysian investments.
RUSD Investment Bank, set up in Malaysia's Labuan offshore
center, will unveil a $200 million Islamic Investment fund for
property in Malaysia in June, RUSD Investment Bank Chairman
Saleh Jameel Malaikah told reporters in Labuan today. It will
introduce a private equity fund with a fund size of as much as
$50 million as early as October and a listed equity fund with an
initial $50 million in September, he said.
``Demand is coming from the Middle East for investment,''
he said. For the property fund ``there is tremendous opportunity
and capital gains in the Malaysian real estate market.''
Malaysia is luring more Middle East investors to make
investments in the country's stocks, real estate and
infrastructure projects. Malaysia's $131 billion economy,
Southeast Asia's third-largest, may grow an average 6 percent a
year between now and 2010, the government said in March. The
economy expanded an average 4.5 percent a year in the 2001-to-
2005 period.
Kuwait Finance House started an Islamic real estate fund
with Singapore's Pacific Star Group to invest in a Malaysian
property project in February.
Shariah Law
Malaysia, which is nurturing its Islamic finance industry
to compete with Bahrain and Singapore, last year granted
licenses to Kuwait Finance House, the Persian Gulf's largest
Islamic investment firm, Saudi Arabia's Al Rajhi Banking &
Investment Corp., and to a group of investors comprising Qatar
Islamic Bank, RUSD Investment Bank and Kuwait's Global
Investment House.
Shariah, or Islamic law, doesn't allow interest payments
and forbids investments in businesses with interests in gambling
or alcohol. Islamic principles also state that returns paid on
investments must be based on actual profit generated and not on
preset interest rates. |
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