KAMCO Strategy 2017 – Islamic Global Equity Fund

“In our sector, the investment sector, and through being a specialized, client-driven, asset management investment bank, our focus is on building and continuing to maintain our strong leadership position,” says Faisal Sarkhou, Chief Executive Officer of KAMCO.

“Part of that is the trust that is bestowed upon us by our clients and our various stakeholders. We have been paying dividends over the past three to four years. We have been focusing on core activities in asset management and investment banking. Over the past year, we maintained one of the highest assets under management bases in the region, with over 11 billion USD under management. On the financial services side, we completed investment banking deals worth one billion dollars in 2016. It has been a good year for us. Our activities last year ended with us launching a new fund, the Islamic Global Equity Fund, which is now under fundraising in early 2017. We always want to increase the innovative aspect of our product range and services. When we looked at our product line, we saw that as a reputable asset manager, we were missing an Islamic piece to our product range. We did a significant amount of research, development, and discussion, and we came into agreement with a reputable international asset manager named Wellington. They had a strategy which we approved and wanted to replicate into a Kuwait based fund. Wellington had launched their own product in 2010, almost seven years of operation, with an annualized return of over 12 percent. This fund has gone through some difficult times in global equities, and it still is performing well above benchmarks. This is one of the key reasons why we decided to partner with Wellington. We see that there is a gap to international investing. We are MENA focused, but some of our investors would like to have access to international global markets. The debt levels of the companies involved in the Islamic Fund are quite low. These companies are more involved with the ethical side. The Fund covers several aspects that we see fit for our investor base.”