UK - Bank of London and the Middle East $ Income Fund ranks in top decile for 2010

07 February 2011: Bank of London and The Middle East (BLME) today announced that its Sharia'a $ Income Fund has been ranked in the top decile of funds for 2010 by Lipper Hindsight, Thomson Reuters' fund ranking platform. This demonstrates the fund's good performance and its ability to provide a good balance between liquidity and return in a challenging environment. (source)


Since its launch in March 2009 BLME's $ Income Fund has offered investors weekly liquidity and enhanced yields through investment in Islamic money markets and the Sukuk (Islamic Bond) market. The annualised yield in 2010 was 5.77% with volatility of only 1.78%.

Nigel Denison, Head of Asset Management at BLME, said: 

"While there is a renewed optimism in the market from some quarters, many investors are still unwilling to tie up their cash for a substantial period of time. For a large proportion of investors, income funds are the perfect solution, providing greater liquidity for Islamic investors than property or leasing funds yet a better return than liquid savings accounts."

Some investors are wary of Sharia'a compliant funds as historically they have underperformed their conventional equivalents and have not been sufficiently liquid. BLME has ensured that the $ Income fund has sufficient liquidity by diversifying the fund's holdings and ensuring that there is sufficient cash available by way of Commodity Murabaha, Wakala (as investment agent) and Trade Finance

The fund, which is managed by Jason Kabel, performed significantly over benchmark. The fund is benchmarked against the three month Libor, with a target return of 1% over the benchmark, net of all fees.

Source : http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20110207111719 - Feb 7, 2011