Navis offers high yield Islamic investment fund

The fund, called the CIMB Muamalat Fund ("CMF"), is a closed-end offshore limited partnership, established in parallel with the Navis Asia Fund III ("NAF") by Navis Capital Partners ("Navis") - a well-known Asia-based private equity fund manager, and CIMB - Malaysia's largest merchant bank. CMF, which is expected to receive capital commitments of up to US$150 million, with initial funding from CIMB, Bank Muamalat and Navis Capital Partners, will co-invest on equal terms with NAF in all investments that are Shari'ah compliant.

"Investors in our earlier funds, Navis Asia Funds I and II, are amongst the world's largest and most sophisticated institutions and include amongst others, the Arab Fund (AFESD in Kuwait), BancBoston Capital, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, HAL, Invesco, Partners of the Boston Consulting Group, and The Pension Fund of the Government of Flanders. All Navis' companies are leaders or near leaders in their fields. This can be attributed to Navis' extensive experience at running successful businesses and our 'hands-on' strategy where Navis takes control of its portfolio companies, either directly with the companies' management teams or in partnership with industry multinationals. Applying the same strategy, the CMF's objective is to generate capital gains on its investments, so that investors will receive a multiple of 2 to 3 times their initial investment over four or five years," explained Nicholas Bloy, Director of Navis.

Navis' current portfolio has an average age of 18 months during which time it has increased in value by over 100%. One small, partial portfolio realization has been made, generating 2.46 times the initial investment over ten months, an IRR of 195% over ten months.

CMF's Shari'ah supervisory board comprises a combination of eminent Middle Eastern and Asian scholars, including, Justice Mohammad Taqi Usmani, Dr. Abdul Sattar Abu Ghuddah and Dr. Mohammed Daud Bakar. CMF and NAF share a highly respected advisory board whose members include, amongst others, Tan Sri Dato' Abdul Aziz Bin Haji Taha, a former Central Bank Governor of Malaysia, Dr. Robert F. De Ocampo, a former Secretary of Finance of the Philippines, and M. R. Chatumongol Sonakul, a former Central bank Governor of Thailand.

The interim closing of CMF will take place in March / April 2002, and the final closing will take place no later than October 2002.

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