Sri Lanka’s first Shariah-based income fund launched

15 November 2012 03:26 am Views - 4445

The Islamic finance industry in Sri Lanka achieved another milestone in its fast evolving history, with the launch of Sri Lanka’s first-ever Shariahbased income fund recently.

Structured as a unit trust, the Comtrust - Adl Mudarabah Fund is the second unit trust to be launched under the combined expertise of Adl Capital Limited and Comtrust Asset Management (Pvt.) Limited.

In 2011, Adl Capital and Comtrust successfully pioneered Sri Lanka’s first open-ended Shariah compliant equity fund, ‘The Crescent i-Fund’ and the launch of this income fund, which would invest only in Shariahcompliant money market instruments rather than equity, would offer investors with an alternative investment opportunity that offers regular returns.

Deutsche Bank will act as Trustee to the fund and will monitor all investments. The fund itself will be under the purview of Sri Lanka’s capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission and funds would be deployed in permissible and low risk investments that comply with Sri Lanka’s regulatory directives, as well as Shariah guidelines.