Emirates Investment Services Limited (EIS), the asset management arm of Emirates NBD Bank, has announced the closure of its award-winning Sukuk Fund.

EIS is a company registered in the Dubai International Financial Centre and regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority.

The closed-ended Fund, which had an initial life of four years, only began trading in March this year and through superior security selection managed to generate total return of close to 15 per cent in a little over seven months.

Given this exceptional performance and the lack of appropriate opportunities in the market going forward the fund manager decided to crystallise the gains and return proceeds to the investors.

The last position in the fund was liquidated in November prior to the restructuring announcement of Dubai World.

The fund, which won the award for “Best new entrant in the Sukuk market” at the London Sukuk Summit earlier this year was launched at the peak of fears about the credit worthiness of regional debt issues and was one of the several innovative opportunities developed under the umbrella of Emirates NBD, the region’s largest bank in terms of assets.

’The fund not only managed to time the bottom in terms of its inception but also sold at almost the peak, thereby generating optimal returns for the investors over this time period,” commented Deon Vernooy, senior executive officer at EIS.

The proceeds from the fund liquidation have been returned to the investors with the option to reinvest in other EIS-managed funds.

“We continue to believe there is a number of exciting investment opportunities regionally and globally for our conventional and Islamic clients and look forward to discussing these with them, once the closure process has been finalized,” Deon Vernooy added.-TradeArabia News Service