Products July 10, 2007

SEI Launches Shariah-compliant Funds

July 10, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - SEI has come out with its own version of Shariah-compliant equity funds, following the lead of several other asset managers who have done the same.
Reported by

According to a press release from the firm, SEI is offering Islamic Manager of Managers equity funds, a new umbrella UCITS III portfolio designed to offer Shariah- compliant investments. This represents the first phase of SEI’s expansion plans for the Middle East and the Islamic Finance market, where it has so far attracted $160 million in assets in the first month since launch.

The SIIF umbrella fund will have four initial underlying Manager of Managers sub-funds:

  • SEI Islamic US Equity Fund,
  • SEI Islamic European Equity Fund,
  • SEI Islamic Emerging Markets Equity Fund, and
  • SEI Islamic Pacific Basin Equity Fund.

The adviser for Shariah compliance is HSBC Amanah, the Islamic Finance Division of HSBC Securities (USA), part of the HSBC Group.

“Investors globally are familiar with the Manager of Managers concept and have been benefiting from this approach for quite some time,” said Brandon Sharrett, managing director of SEI’s Global Private Banking business in the EMEA region, in the press release. “Our launch of these funds represents SEI’s first step towards targeting the rapidly growing Islamic Finance market.”

For more information, visit http://www.seic.com .

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