Bahrain-based Shariah asset managers were in the limelight over the past week together with alternative investments opportunities.
Shariah compliant asset manager Arcapita of Bahrain and US firm Parkway Venture Capital are co-investing in a portfolio of artificial intelligence (AI) companies. The portfolio will focus on five seed assets driving advancements in robotics, quantum computing, generative AI and more.
Bahrain alternative investment firm Investcorp is involved in two separate deals. It is acquiring Italian alternative payments enabler Epipoli from investment firm Bregal Milestone and Gaetano Giannetto. As Epipoli founder and CEO, Gaetano will continue as a minority shareholder and remain in his leadership role.
Malaysian pension fund Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP) selected Investcorp to handle a special managed account (SMA) for the private equity asset class valued at over US$110 million. The SMA will primarily target investments in Southeast Asia, with a 15-20% allocation for Europe.
GFH Financial Group CEO Hisham Alrayes revealed at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos this Bahrain group’s investments and commitments have exceeded US$200 million in the infrastructure sector, specifically in data centers and AI, in the US.
For alternative assets, GreenX Digital Asset Exchange – a Shariah compliant platform under the Labuan Financial Services Authority in Malaysia – will be listing pop culture-associated Aetherium tokens.
The Aetherium token is a propriety virtual idol technology product by Marbling Corporation that brings in revenue through in-app purchases, music streaming, merchandise sales and virtual events based on virtual pop music idols – fictional singing and dancing characters that are created using virtual reality engines, singing synthesizers, AI technology and anime-comic-games concepts.
Halal investment research platform Musaffa plans a new equity crowdfunding round, after raising over US$3 million from 23 seed investors and US$987,011 through equity crowdfunding from 502 investors across 50 countries.
On the regulatory front, the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority released a draft regulation for security and commodity tokens – the first of its kind in the country’s capital markets, which defines these tokens and sets rules for trading, settlement and pledging, among others.
The Saudi Capital Market Authority approved the public offering of the Dinar Saudi Equity Fund as well as the Al Rajhi Global Real Estate Sector Fund.