North American Islamic investors eye scarce secondary market opportunities

Extended exit timelines are bringing greater attention to secondary transactions and continuation vehicles among North American Shariah-conscious investors, although opportunities remain limited, according to Ahmad Quqa, the founder and CEO of Crescent Private Wealth.

“The compliant private market universe is still young, so a deep secondary market with credible pricing and properly screened underlying portfolios does not yet exist at scale. That is precisely why it is an opportunity,” Ahmad explains to IFN Investor.

According to Ahmad, longer holding periods in private markets have increased the relevance of secondaries and general partner-led restructurings, a trend that is also beginning to gain attention among Shariah-aligned investors. For them, these structures can be attractive because they offer diversification, often a clearer line of sight to underlying assets and, at times, a discount, all of which suit a value-oriented, risk-sharing mindset.

However, he cautioned that the opportunity remains at an early stage due to limited market depth and supporting infrastructure.

“My approach for clients is to watch it closely as an emerging access point and to require maturity, governance and transparency before committing capital, rather than being early for its own sake,” he shares.

The growing interest in secondaries is supported by family offices and other institutional investors favoring asset-backed, cash-flow-generative strategies. Ahmad said the strongest demand is for income real estate, logistics and industrial property, infrastructure and private credit built on a genuinely compliant basis – assets that sit closer to Shariah principles than the leverage-driven buyout model thanks to their tangible, productive and risk-sharing nature.

“The demand is real; institutional-quality compliant supply still lags,” he said. As the market matures, Ahmad believes the next phase of development will be defined less by a single sector and more by improvements in vehicles, governance and investor access. Secondary markets may become an increasingly important part of that evolution, helping address liquidity constraints while broadening participation in private assets.

“This is also exactly the kind of gap a maturing North American Islamic finance market needs to close,” he opines.