The QIB will manage the fund in coordination with Kuwait’s Global Investment House. The objective is to generate returns for investors beyond the market index. The fund will be supervised by the QCB as per its rules, a QIB release said yesterday.
Subscription will be on a monthly basis and minimum investment amount will be QR50,000. Investment will be made in select listed stocks which comply with the Islamic Shari’ah norms.
Commenting on the launch of the fund, QIB’s CEO, Salah Al Jaidah, said it represents a major initiative as it offers a great opportunity for investors to enter the "strong and regionally active" Qatari market, and is expected to realise high returns in line with the other investment products of the bank.
"This QIB-Global partnership constitutes one of the main features of this venture. It will largely allow for benefiting from the other Gulf financial markets, especially since currently the prices of Qatari stocks have hit the bottom line," Al Jaidah said.
The fund hopes to benefit from the booming national economy, high state income, available liquidity, inter-bank competition and the expanding corporate activities in the country. Al Jaidah said that with a capital of QR1bn, the fund will try its best to optimise investment opportunities at the national level.
He stressed that based on its successful investment structure and the fact that indicators show that high economic growth will be maintained in the future, the fund constitutes a viable opportunity for investing in best performing shares at the same time focusing on maximising returns.
Abdullatif Al Meer, AGM-Business Group, said that management of the fund will be ensured jointly by a team of experts from QIB and Global Investment House. Global, which manages 32 investment funds with a total asset value of over 7.2 billion US Dollars, is holder of several international awards, mainly the Eureka Hedge and Euromoney awards.
The fund, evaluated in Qatari Riyals, aims at doubling utilised capitals by investing them in select Shari’ah compatible stocks, said Al Meer, adding that subscription will be on a monthly basis from May 2007 and will allow for redemption based on the net asset value (NAV) after at least 60 days from the date of subscription.
According to Al Meer, apart from the proper timing of offering the underlined fund, in-depth studies have confirmed the availability of numerous investment opportunities in the shares of companies with permissible activities. The fund will be supervised by the QIB’s Shari’ah Control Board.
