Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Authority (DMCCA) said its Shariah-compliant Dubai Shariah Asset Management (DSAM) Kauthar Commodity Funds has recorded industry leading gains in the 12 months ending December 31, 2009.

The DSAM Kauthar Commodity Fund (DKCF), an equally-weighted fund-of-funds comprising four single-strategy, commodity-focused funds that invest exclusively in Shariah-compliant long/short equity hedge funds on the Al Safi Trust platform, was up 41 per cent at the end of last year, the DMCCA said in a statement.

During the same period, DKCF managers returned roughly double the average return of their equity and commodity benchmarks. The fund-of-funds total assets under management stood at $250.1 million as of December 31, 2009, the DMCC said in a statement.

In 2009, the DKCF was one of the top-performing commodity funds among fund-of-hedge funds globally, based on Bloomberg and Eurekahedge data, highlighting the sound underlying investment strategy of its fund managers and innovative product development strategy.

DKCF ranked in the 99th percentile of the Bloomberg Active Index for Islamic Funds as well as the 99th percentile of the Eurekahedge Fund of Funds Index.

Indeed, excluding funds with less than $100 million in assets, the DKCF is the top-performing commodity fund-of-funds and the leading Shariah-compliant fund-of-funds, according to hedgefund.net. 

The Al Safi Trust is a comprehensive Shariah-compliant platform designed specifically for hedge funds and launched by Barclays Capital and Shariah Capital. Distributed under the DSAM Kauthar label, the four funds underlying the index have been seeded with $50 million each by DMCCA.

In addition, DMCCA announced today that its DSAM Kauthar Gold Fund, one of four funds distributed under the DSAM Kauthar label, has received the “Outstanding Performance & Innovation Award” from Mena Fund Manager, the region’s leading industry title.

For a whole year, the gold fund was up nearly 68 per cent in 2009, ranking number one out of 344 Islamic funds followed by Eurekahedge, representing all investment strategies and markets from around the world.

The DSAM Kauthar Gold Fund also ranked first globally out of 673 hedge funds with between $50 to 250 million in assets under management, according to HedgeFund.net. 

The DSAM Kauthar Global Resources & Mining Fund, which recorded gains of more than 55 per cent in 2009, is ranked in the 99th percentile of the Reuters Lipper TASS Energy Index, putting it in the top 10 of 2,150 funds reporting to Lipper.

Meanwhile, the DSAM Kauthar Energy Fund was up 41 per cent as of December 31, 2009. Finally, the DSAM Kauthar Natural Resources Fund was up slightly more than three per cent at the end of the same period.
 
“At DMCCA, we are committed to supporting the expansion of the Islamic financial services sector, and our innovative DSAM Kauthar Funds represent the future for that high-growth sector,” said Ahmed Bin Sulayem, executive chairman, DMCCA.

“We are aware that these relatively new products were launched during a global downturn, and recognise that investors are now understandably conservative in their approach. Therefore, we will continue to focus on educating the market, highlighting to investors the sterling performance of the funds and underscoring their long-term appeal,” he added.

“The award-winning performance of the DSAM Kauthar Gold Fund as well as the exceptional gains recorded by the DSAM Kauthar Global Resources & Mining Fund and Energy Fund place them at the top of worldwide indices,” said Malcolm Wall Morris, chief executive officer of DMCCA.

“These cutting-edge, Shariah-complaint alternative investment products have been specifically developed to meet the needs of regional investors, while also appealing to conventional institutional investors. Based on past performance, we are confident that we will continue to expand and diversify our client base in 2010,” he added.

Eric Meyer, chairman and chief executive officer, Shariah Capital, said, 'The strength of our fund managers, who were selected on the basis of their outstanding track record in commodities over the past two decades, is clearly second to none.'

“Each of the partners involved in the development and marketing of these exceptional products is extremely proud of our success in 2009, and we look forward to sustaining our performance in the 12 months to come,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service