伊斯兰资本聚焦亚洲基础设施建设

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2015-12-02 10:46:26 【来源：伊斯兰金融学会】点击：

Islamic investors eyeing Asian infrastructure opportunities

World economic powers are shifting.Traditionally concentrated in the west,the rise of Asian economies have placed these nations on the business map and global investors are turning their heads toward this region; but how has this meteoric rise translated into Islamic investment opportunities? VINEETA TAN finds the answer in a cross-border partnership which has brought together a conventional player and a familiar name in the Shariah investment landscape.

Owing to a burgeoning middle class of growing affluence, rapid urbanization, and disproportionately youthful population, the ASEAN region is experiencing high economic growth becoming the fastest-growing economy in Asia after China with GDP expanding 300% since 2001 and expected to double to US$4.7 trillion over the next five years(according to IHS). Central to this theme of phenomenal growth is infrastructure development and Malaysia’s Maybank(through its asset management arm) as well as Australia’s Hastings Management are leveraging this deep need — US$7 trillion over the 2014-30 period according to Mc insey Global Institute — across the ASEAN bloc for Shariah capital gains.

“Maybank has identified [Islamic infrastructure investments] as an opportunity and we know enough of the global market to recognize that that is true. There are relatively few avenues for that large growing capital pool to gain exposure into the infrastructure asset class and therefore it is a great business opportunity to create a product to fill the gap,” shared Robert Campbell, the director of Asia at Hastings Management, with IFN.

Hastings recently formed a partnership with Maybank Asset Management Group(MAMG) to explore Shariah compliant infrastructure investment opportunities in Asia which is to culminate into a US$1 billion Malaysia-domiciled Islamic global infrastructure fund. IFN has learned that the two entities are looking at an initial close of US$250 million and are planning to host international roadshows in the next few months with an eye on launching the fund in the first quarter of 2016.

This collaboration marks the Melbournebased infrastructure investment specialist’s foray into the Islamic space and the first Australian partnership for MAMG. This partnership will also pave the way for MAMG to tap opportunities in China and India for the first time.

The pioneering dollar infrastructure fund is also significant in that not only would it broaden and diversify the investment product stable for the Shariah-seeking community, but it also opens doors for Islamic banks to provide Islamic financing support both at the acquisition stage and Sukuk at the expansion stage of the upcoming fund.

Infrastructure has long been at the heart of Islamic finance development due to its compatibility with Shariah investing strategies, ie tangible assets on a longterm investment horizon; and in recent years, it has increasingly adopted an Asian flavor. In Malaysia for example, while the Islamic finance market is expected to slow down, however, the country’s robust infrastructure projects under its 11th Malaysia Plan are anticipated to drive Sukuk sales. On a more global scale, the IDB has engaged Indonesia and Turkey to co-found the Islamic Infrastructure Investment Bank with talks of anchoring the bank in Indonesia. The multilateral institution is also exploring opportunities with the proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, China’s answer to the World Bank and a tie-up between the two organizations would spur the utilization of Shariah compliant financing instruments.

edited by SIBPF

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