Abu Dhabi-based Waha Investment will maintain its focus on operating its existing three open-ended funds for the foreseeable future. “Our investors like that we are a focused asset manager,” Managing Director Alae Chouaibi shared with IFN Investor.
While the firm had been managing assets in the conventional landscape since its 2012 establishment, Alae said: “We decided to start a Shariah compliant fund because we think it is a fast-growing industry with decent potential.”
The Waha Islamic Income fund was launched in August 2020 to invest in global Sukuk and Shariah compliant equities. Before this fund’s launch, Alae said data from January 2016 was used as performance tracking of unlevered, unhedged Sukuk holdings from the Waha EM Credit Fund.
Alae explained the Islamic fund launch also matched the firm’s focus, “especially with our emerging market DNA as most of the Sukuk issuers are from there”. The income fund is empowered to invest in all global Sukuk – with diverse holdings including from Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkiye.
With US$3 billion in assets under management, Waha Investment’s focus is in emerging markets credit and MENA equities – serving mainly institutional investors.
Its inaugural Waha EM Credit Fund has a hybrid focus – investing in sovereign and corporate emerging market credit; with a regional focus on Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. The other is the Waha MENA Equity Fund with a portfolio of publicly-listed companies across the Middle East and North Africa regional equity markets.
