Launch of the Russell-Jadwa Shariah Indexes
LONDON 24 June, 2009 - Russell Investments (Russell) and Jadwa Investment (Jadwa) are pleased to announce that they have today signed an agreement to launch a new Shariah compliant offering, the Russell-Jadwa Shariah Index family. The signing ceremony was attended by HRH Prince Faisal bin Salman, Chairman of Jadwa, Mr. Andrew Doman, President and CEO of Russell and senior managers of both companies.
Screened from the 10,000 security Russell Global Index universe, the Russell-Jadwa Index will contain more than 2,700 securities from over 60 countries. The new index family will be divisible by region, country, developed and emerging markets, capitalization size, sector, industry and style to provide fully modular benchmarks representing the comprehensive opportunity set within each segment.
Andrew Doman commented “The Jadwa team has earned a reputation for leading innovation across the Shariah compliant financial services industry and we are proud to be collaborating with them on this initiative.
“The last decade has witnessed stellar growth for Islamic finance and Shariah-compliant funds. The Indexes we have built with Jadwa include securities from 62 countries, offering investors the most complete country coverage currently available. At the same time, we believe our screen offers the strictest Shariah compliance. Our methodology will filter out many more financial companies than our competitors for example,” Doman added. “Our clients’ have been demanding this more robust approach and we expect $1 billion in assets to follow the new index family.”
On this occasion, Ahmed Al-Khateeb, managing director & CEO of Jadwa Investment said: "We are very excited about the launch of the family of indices with Russell. Russell is the acknowledged leader in this field and their indices are widely used by investors and fund managers alike. Their methodology better suits the high expectations we have for Shariah complaint investment managers. The launch of these indices strengthens our partnership with Russell which started with two multi manager Shariah compliant equity funds in 2007. We aim through this important project to provide a Shariah compliant investment product that meets the needs of the investors in the Islamic world.”
Fadi Tabbara, Jadwa’s head of asset management and CIO commented, ”As managers of Shariah-compliant funds and discretionary accounts, we have often struggled to find benchmarks that would provide an appropriate comparison with peers and an accurate measurement of our performance. The Russell-Jadwa Shariah Index fills that void with its comprehensive universe, transparent methodology and its modular design offering unlimited divisibility.”
The index will be approved and monitored by a Shariah board comprising of the following eminent scholars: Sheikh Dr. Abdullah Al Mutlaq (Chairman), Dr. Mohammed Daud Bakar (Member), Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Ali El Gari (Member) and Shaikh Esam Mohammed Ishaq (Member). Specific sector and financial-based filters will be applied to exclude businesses that offer products and services which are considered unacceptable or non-compliant according to Shariah law.
The Russell-Jadwa Shariah Index will be available mid-summer.
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