AGI offers equity funds in compliance with Islamic law

Points of Essence:

• Germany based Allianz Global Investors added two Shariah compliant equity funds, namely, Allianz RCM Islamic Global Equity Opportunities and Allianz RCM Islamic Global Emerging Markets Equity, to its list of investment portfolios.

Allianz RCM Islamic Global Equity Opportunities and Allianz RCM Islamic Global Emerging Markets Equity invest in Sharia-compliant equities

2 Oct 2008 , Frankfurt : Allianz RCM Islamic Global Equity Opportunities and Allianz RCM Islamic Global Emerging Markets Equity are two new equity funds listed by Allianz Global Investors in Germany, which both abide by the principles of the Sharia. While Allianz RCM Islamic Global Equity Opportunities opens opportunities for investors to build up a global equity portfolio, Allianz RCM Islamic Global Emerging Markets Equity concentrates on companies from emerging countries which conform to Sharia guidelines.

Investment universe within Sharia guidelines
The portfolios of both funds include equities where investment is allowed under Islamic law. Muslim investors, for example, avoid investing in conventional financial enterprises since the Koran forbids income from interest. Companies operating in the gambling, alcohol or tobacco industries are also excluded.

A special advisory company as well as a Shariah Board, which allows independent experts to contribute their many years of experience of the Islamic financial and banking industries, watch over the funds to make sure that the strict guidelines are complied with.

High degree of flexibility in the management strategy
Allianz RCM Islamic Global Emerging Markets Equity is managed by Dilek Capanoglu. The fund combines the approaches of top-down country allocation and fundamental bottom-up equity selection to build up an actively managed portfolio of securities from emerging markets.

Paul Schofield is fund manager of Allianz RCM Islamic Global Equity Opportunities and he integrates the most successful ideas and topics from RCM global equity products into his management strategy. Apart from the Sharia guidelines, there are virtually no other restrictions on the fund in terms of investment style, sector, industry, market capitalization or geographical factors.

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