The past week served up further evidence that the Islamic investment industry is resilient and continues to perform strongly as we see real estate and equity deals being closed while new funds in the tokenization sphere begin to take form.
An example of such resilience would be that of sustainable investing policies — which are facing heat from political conservatives around the world. And yet, experts say that dissociating Islamic equity funds from such turbulence, to stand out in 2025, is not really necessary.
Various statistics bear out this outlook. Malaysia’s public Islamic capital size rose 8.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) to stand at 63.04% of the overall RM4.12 trillion (US$945.84 billion) capital market at the end of 2024, the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) said in its latest annual report.
Expanding to a global viewpoint, the IFN Investor Funds Database showed total Shariah compliant assets under management (AuM) passed the US$460 billion mark worldwide on the 17th March 2025. A total of 467 fund management firms managing 2,494 public Islamic funds reached this new milestone.
Zooming in, Europe ranks third globally in Islamic funds, after the Middle East and Asia, amassing US$38.43 billion as at the end of 2024, according to latest regional figures from the IFN Investor Funds Database. Interestingly, Luxembourg’s local asset managers handle US$1.83 billion in Islamic funds AuM while international asset managers manage almost triple that amount at US$5.36 billion as at the end of Q4 2024.
Digital assets
Tokenization and cryptocurrencies are gaining interest among Islamic investors: we learned that new Bahrain digital exchange ATME is to launch a Shariah compliant arbitrage fund token in May 2025 while Malaysia’s Halogen Capital has launched another bitcoin fund, bringing its number of Shariah compliant crypto funds to four. Meanwhile the SC is collaborating with Khazanah Nasional to introduce the tokenization of bonds and Sukuk this year to broaden retail participation in the country’s capital market.
Deals
Various Shariah compliant deals took place in the past week, with the future pipeline looking strong, particularly in the real estate sector. Dar Global, which recently launched the Trump Tower Jeddah and Neptune by Mouawad in Riyadh, is investing in two strategic development land sites in Jeddah and Riyadh with a total US$390 million valuation.
Staying bullish, UAE asset manager Gulf Islamic Investments (GII) aims to double its existing US portfolio of US$750 million through GII Saudi Arabia in the next four years – with focus on logistics, education and food production and processing sectors.
Kuwait Financial Centre, better known as Markaz, explains why it has adopted a partnership approach to investing in international real estate opportunities.
In the equity capital markets, a Malaysian Islamic IPO is in the making as WTEC Group prepares to list on the ACE market with the help of principal adviser, sponsor, sole underwriter and placement agent Alliance Islamic Bank. Meanwhile Hassana Investment, which invests on behalf of Saudi pension fund General Organization for Social Insurance, completed the acquisition of a 40% stake in Berain Water.
Fintech
Fintech companies are driving Islamic investments in non-traditional markets: digital Islamic savings platform Perenys is working on new solutions on the back of increasing appetite for Shariah compliant investment products in France while Shariah stock screener Musaffa’s aims for 2025 include getting a registered investment advisor license in the US, rolling out a Halal trading platform in the GCC, and launching exchange-traded funds.
JazzCash, a mobile payments company in Pakistan, launched its new Shariah compliant in-app investment offering Salaam Investments.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority authorized Offa, a portfolio company of GII, to provide home purchase plans – a Shariah compliant alternative to conventional residential mortgages – for customers across the UK.
Moves
Malaysia’s AmanahRaya Real Estate Investment Trust redesignated Mohd Iskandar Dzulkarnain Ramli from alternate director to its new managing director and GFH Financial Group assigned Chief Risk Officer Bhaskar Mehta as acting CFO following the departure of Surya Hariharan.
