Tebyan Asset Management (Tebyan), the joint venture asset managementarm of Qatar First Investment Bank (QFIB), Qatar’s independent Islamic investment bank, authorized by the QFC Regulatory Authority, announcestoday the debut of Tebyan CHIME Opportunities Fund (Fund), the first of its kind Shari’ah compliant product to offer investors a gateway into the New Silk Route, the new economic axis of the Arab-Indo-China regions.
Covering what is commonly known as CHIME (China, India, and Middle East); the new Fund will be operated by Tebyan, established and regulated in the Cayman Islands and co-managed by Gulfmena Investments (Gulfmena) as Investment Manager who will oversee the MENA and Africa investments and Lion Global Investors (Lion Global), who will oversee China and India. Launched in 2011, Tebyan is a fully integrated, Shari’ah-compliant asset management company that was established following QFIB’s strategic partnership with Gulfmena while Lion Global is a Singapore based asset management company with about US$21.5 billion in assets under management as at 30 September 2011 and a long impressive track record in managing assets in Asian Markets.
On the back of enhancing investment sentiment globally, Tebyan launches this new product with initial capital funding seeded by QFIB with the aim of fostering investor confidence and building a solid track record before marketing the fund to qualified investors. However, the Fund is an open ended fund, open to investors who wish to participate in the early stage. Moreover, the Fund will use as a benchmark the Dow Jones Islamic Market CHIME Index, launched last week by Dow Jones Indexes, a pioneer in the Islamic indexing space.
Recognizing the needs of the Shari’ah investment community for sophisticated guidance, Emad Mansour, CEO of QFIB said, “Whilst Tebyan plans to offer strategies covering other asset classes, we are confident about the prospects of equity markets in 2012. We have specifically chosen the CHIME region as it provides an attractive platform expected to generate sound returns. We are committing propriety capital to seed the Fund in hope that this will foster investor confidence in Tebyan’s debut product.” “By facilitating the global development of Islamic investment, our aim is to build a track record and show investors the compelling story behind this unique strategy in the months to come,” concluded Mansour.
HaissamArabi, CEO, Tebyan added: “We expect the global economy to recover by the second half of 2012. This will reflect positively on global equity markets specifically in emerging markets whose economies benefit from lower commodity and stable oil prices, growth from domestic activity and government spending. This makes the CHIME Opportunities Fund ideal for the comeback of the equity markets.”
Tebyan is a total solutions investment provider that combines both asset management and wealth management to serve the needs of the Islamic investment community.
After an initial and temporary offshore establishment, Tebyan will be headquartered in Qatar and is expected to get its license from the QFCRA in the first half of 2012