Bespoke Shariah portfolio to drive StashAway growth in Malaysia

Following the launch of its first Shariah compliant offering, together with bespoke investment opportunities within this category, StashAway aims to garner a bigger share of the Malaysian investor pool keen on global Islamic asset holdings.

Country Manager Wong Wai Ken noted this potential gain was reflected in statistics from the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) – which showed that while local investors were not invested much in equities abroad, there were nevertheless significant stakes in overseas Shariah compliant securities.

“Malaysia is our second largest market, which StashAway entered in 2018, after starting operations with our Singapore base. At the end of 2024, there were over 60,000 Malaysian subscribers on StashAway with total AuM surpassing RM1 billion (US$236.63 million).”

Describing the Shariah Global Portfolio offering as a natural fit for the burgeoning Islamic investment landscape in Malaysia, Wong said this Islamic investment opportunity will also be offered via the firm’s operations in Singapore and the UAE.

While the Malaysian market is seen to be quite diverse where this firm’s subscribers range from retail to affluent investors ready to access offerings via its app, presenting an economic environment which has many parallels with Singapore, Wong said the UAE market needs a more personal touch.

Needing “ambassadors” with credible word-of-mouth references, the right clientele is often to be found ready to listen at cozy gatherings rather than via digital outreach or mass media. Having offered only conventional assets there so far, the new Shariah portfolio is expected to raise StashAway’s appeal.

Though the firm operates in Hong Kong and Thailand as well, Wong said those markets are unlikely to be interested in these Islamic offerings.

Catering to different risk profiles, these Shariah portfolios come in four groups with varied ratios of S&P 500 Islamic index ETFs, emerging markets Islamic ETFs, world Islamic market ETFs, global Sukuk and gold.

These groups can be customized further by the subscriber with options to add the cryptocurrency assets of Bitcoin, Ethereum and silver – which have all been declared Shariah compliant by SC-registered Masryef Advisory.

Wong said this Shariah advisory firm had been working with StashAway since 2018 to explore Islamic offerings, but it was only in recent years that there had been enough of such instruments – including ETFs – with sufficient global liquidity to make the latest portfolio viable. “Also, while the Shariah Global Portfolio constituents are passively managed according to respective benchmarks, we also take note of major economic swings like deflation and crises scenarios. These situations will lead to revisions, factoring them into these portfolio investment strategies.”