Related Articles
Top Stories
May 25 2012 19:13
Uncertainty over the future of the euro zone returned to push the rand down against the dollar.
May 25 2012 13:58
The costs of the first phase of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project have increased significantly to almost R90bn, according to a report.
May 25 2012 11:36
The JSE has identified and stopped "incorrect" trades from one of its members, and will reverse the trades and lower the session's total value after the close.
London - South Africa's third largest fund management company, Stanlib, has put on hold plans to launch a global equity Islamic fund, Ashraf Mohamed, manager of the Stanlib Shari'ah Equity Fund told Reuters.
Mohamed, the only Islamic finance manager within the company, said he had left the company at the end of June after the plan was put on hold. He joined Stanlib in 2007 to help set up the its Islamic equity offering.
Stanlib said in an emailed statement that it "remains committed to building on its broad range of investment capabilities and will announce any future developments in its Islamic finance strategy in due course."
Stanlib had already shelved plans to launch an Islamic African equity fund in the wake of the financial crisis, Mohamed told Reuters in April.
Islamic finance demands the exclusion of sectors such as gambling, alcohol and pornography. The financial sector is also avoided because interest charging is also forbidden.
Mohamed said that before deciding to leave, he had offered to commit his own capital as well as the firm's to launch the global equity fund, but was turned down.
He is now planning to launch his own Islamic global equity fund and is looking for partners to back the project. He expects the launch to take place in the fourth quarter of the year.
Despite leaving the firm, Mohamed still manages the Shari'ah Equity South Africa fund as an external manager. It is unclear how his departure will affect Stanlib's long-term Islamic management strategy.
Mohamed is also discussing whether he will remain involved with the mainstream equity Stanlib Prosperity Fund.
Islamic finance has grown significantly in the last five years, partly on the back of the oil price increase. Earlier this year consulting firm Oliver Wyman estimated that by 2012 Islamic assets will reach $1.6 trillion.
Stanlib was formed through the merger of Liberty Asset Management and Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank Asset Management in 2002.
It is part of the Liberty and Standard Bank group.
- Reuters