Franklin Templeton Investments is starting its first Islamic funds, following companies including BNP Paribas SA in tailoring products to win business in the Muslim world.
The world’s third-largest asset-management company will start three sukuk and stock investment vehicles in Luxembourg in the next few months, Sandeep Singh, its Malaysian country head, said in a July 24 interview in Kuala Lumpur. San Mateo, California-based Franklin Templeton, which had $707 billion of assets under management as of June 30, according to its corporate factsheet, already oversees around $700 million of Islamic assets in Malaysia, without having its own Shariah- compliant funds.
Switzerland’s Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. and Eastspring Investments, an Asian arm of London-based Prudential Plc, are also diversifying into an industry whose holdings are projected by the Islamic Financial Services Board to almost triple to $2.8 trillion by 2015. Worldwide sales of sukuk climbed 77 per cent to $28.3 billion in 2012 as governments from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia increased spending to support economic growth.
No comments:
Post a Comment