Daman Investments launches its first Islamic fund

The offer period will begin on May 8, and end May 31, 2007.

Announcing the fund launch, Mr. Shehab Gargash, Managing Director, Daman, said: "It gives us great pleasure to announce the second fund to be launched in 2007 - our first Islamic fund. Both funds are part of the family of funds that we are proud to be introducing this year."

When queried about the strategy behind launching two new products in such a short time period when the market has not fully recovered, Mr. Gargash said:

"On the first day of trading this week, the market moved rapidly up with a clear 2.2% point gain on the index in a broad based rally. At the beginning of this year, we said that the current market conditions are ripe for deriving higher value and we believe that such broad based rallies are positive for the market sentiment and a sign of a recovery path. We remain confident that the early performance of our two new funds is a strong indication that this is the right time to begin a new upward cycle. In our belief, these are all clear signals pointing towards a returning value to the markets. For early movers, this is absolutely the right time to come back to the UAE equities markets."

The Daman Islamic Fund - First Daman product in burgeoning Islamic sector

Commenting on the new fund structure and investor profile Mr. Gargash said:
"We have seeded our new Islamic fund prior to its launch and found that the performance was very positive against the overall market trend and Index. The pre-seeded Islamic fund achieved a positive gain of 4.97% over the last 7 months in a time period when the trend was still negative with benchmark NBAD Index declining by more than 10% for the same time period."

Remarking on the projected investor profile, Mr. Gargash further commented: "Obviously institutions and individuals that are comfortable with a fund structured on Shari'ah compliant, Islamic investment principles are going to be very favorable towards this fund type. Again, like our previously launched Daman Second Emirates Fund, this fund is open to all nationalities as well as non-UAE residents."

The new Daman Islamic fund's minimum subscription amount is set at AED 200,000. In parallel with the Daman Second Emirates Fund, The Daman Islamic fund will target quarterly dividend payouts and will be open to all nationalities as well as non-UAE residents.

The Daman Second Emirates Fund - First month is up by 2.36%

When asked about the performance of the newly launched Daman Second Emirates Fund, Mr. Gargash said: "Our Daman Second Emirates Fund has performed well in our still flat market conditions and has announced its first NAV with a positive gain of 2.36% for April 2007 holding an average of 74% cash during the month. We are confident that the positioning, strategy and launch timing is correct and will maximize the early entry of this fund and its companion Islamic fund into the UAE markets."