India’s Reliance Capital plans Islamic funds

June 29 (Reuters) – A subsidiary of India’s Reliance Capital Asset Management will launch two Islamic funds in Malaysia by July and roll out products for retail investors in two years, a company official said on Tuesday.

Financials

Reliance, India’s largest asset management company, will launch a fund investing in Indian stocks next week and a quantitative global equity fund investing in the U.S., Europe and Asia in July.

Both funds would be managed out of Malaysia.

“The long-term objective is to target the retail sharia market in the region,” said Vikrant Gugnani, Reliance Capital’s international businesses CEO.

“We believe the retail story in Malaysia has yet to unfold and we want to be positioned well before to take advantage of (it).”

Reliance Capital Asset Management, which manages more than $33 billion, is part of financial services firm Reliance Capital (RLCP.BO). (Click on [ID:nISLAMIC] for more Islamic finance stories and ISLAMIC for a speed guide) (Reporting by Liau Y-Sing; Editing by Niluksi Koswanage)

Reliance MF to launch Islamic fund in Malaysia soon

Reliance MF to launch Islamic fund in Malaysia soonMUMBAI: Reliance Mutual Fund will shortly launch an Islamic fund in Malaysia, a top company official said.

“We have set up a subsidiary and it is launching an Islamic fund in Malaysia shortly,” Reliance Capital Asset Management CEO, Sundeep Sikka, told reporters on the sidelines of a press meet here.

The company now plans to open its first office in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Reliance Capital, together with Kuwait’s Global Investment House, were given the nod last November by the Securities Commission (SC) to establish their Islamic fund management operations.

The concept of Islamic funds, which invest in Sharia-compliant stocks, is catching up fast in India.

The objective of such funds is to make hundreds of rich and religious Muslim people, who otherwise do not put money in interest-yielding instruments or non-Sharia compliant stocks, to invest in them.