IFA Khaleeji Fund starts investing in Gulf markets after successful initial offer

    Dumped value of 'ID':
'37442';

Dumped value of 'images_loop':
[
    {
        'caption' => 'IFA Khaleeji Fund’s board of directors meeting in Dubai.',
        'col' => 'picture',
        'name' => 'ifa.jpg',
        'url' => '/7/5257-ifa.jpg'
    }
];

Kuwait's International Financial Advisors (IFA), Univest Group and the UAE's Daman, are the promoters of IFA Khaleeji Fund. The Fund has already gone into operation and has begun investing in its target markets as of 1st April 2004.

Markets covered by the cross-border financial joint venture are those of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which include Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar; in addition to the highly promising market of Iraq.

Daman Asset Management has specialist knowledge of the Iraqi market being the first on the ground in Baghdad with its Daman Iraq Fund, which was launched in January 2003. Daman's experience and on-ground extensive infrastructure is available to the Fund.

The IFA Khaleeji Fund will now open for subscription at the published net asset value (NAV) twice every month. The first NAV of the fund will be published on 15th April 2004 and thereafter, it will be published every fortnight.

Attracting foreign investors
One of the main objectives of the three partners was to attract global foreign investment flows into the as yet under-exposed GCC and Iraq markets, which are considered promising emerging markets that hold high potential. For this purpose, the IFA Khaleeji Fund was carefully designed specifically for these investors, bearing in mind their expectations of a certain level of transparency and corporate governance.

And following the successful conclusion of the initial offer period and in keeping with the aim to create a vehicle to attract international investors, the Fund is governed by a seven-member Board of Directors that reflects the diversity of the investors and includes internationally acclaimed financial personalities.

The first IFA Khaleeji Fund Board of Directors meeting was held in Dubai in March 2004, and attended by ; Mr. Shehab M. Gargash, Mr. Hussain Al Qemzi, Mr. Christopher D Brady, Mr. Abdulwahab Al Nakib, Mr. Musab Alwandawi, Mr. Saleh Al Selmi and Mr. Khalid Al Babtain.

Performance-driven managers
The mechanism of the fund has been designed to maximise flexibility and speed of operations. Unlike other funds that have one overall fund manager, specialist on-the-ground fund managers have been appointed in each of the target markets. These performance-driven managers were selected from among the best in their field and have a high level of expertise in their domestic markets. The fund allows them the liberty to invest funds allocated to them according to their judgement in their own markets - within overall guidelines that ensure the integrity of the Fund's objectives.

The IFA Khaleeji Fund targets institutional and high net worth investors. It was launched on 3rd March 2004 with a $100 per unit price and minimum subscription set at US$500,000. The initial offer period ended on 31st March 2004. Subscriptions are accepted twice a month at NAV. Redemptions will be once every quarter. The fund is open-ended and is registered in the Cayman Islands. It invests in the equities of the Arab Gulf markets.

The fund aims to pay dividends of up to half the realised gains every quarter.