AUSTRALIA's first Islamic wealth manager, Crescent Wealth, is looking to setup a new $1 billion Shariah-compliant property fund to invest in commercial assets locally.

AUSTRALIA’s first Islamic wealth manager, Crescent Wealth, is looking to setup a new $1 billion Shariah-compliant property fund to invest in commercial assets locally.

Established in 2011, Crescent Wealth is the first Australian wealth manager offering investors a choice of investments products that are in accordance with Shariah law investment principles.

Islamic finance and Shariah-compliant investment funds are rare in Australia, even in the area of Islamic banking, which adheres to the religious principles such as bans on interest and pure monetary speculation.

However Islamic finance is one of the fastest growing sector globally, fuelled by the untapped Muslim population and oil rich kingdoms of the Middle East, namely the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Jordan, just to name a few.

There is also demand from investors in Malaysia, Turkey and Indonesia.

According to HSBC Bank, assets of Islamic financial institutions have grown by an average of 15% per annum to reach over $US1 trillion in March 2011.

HSBC estimates that total assets in Islamic finance could reach $US4 trillion to $US5 trillion by 2015. The most common forms of Shariah compliant investments are in real estate, equity and commodity funds.

According to Reuters, Crescent Wealth managing director Talal Yassine told the Global Islamic Economy Summit in Dubai, that it is planning to launch a new commercial property fund next year as it expands its range of products, which already includes equity funds and Halal superannuation funds.

The fund will invest in offices and industrial properties across Australia.

“We are talking about a major fund, about probably between $A300 million to $A1 billion. The yield will have to be on market, that would be 7 to 12%,” Yassine said.

“We have no impediments for Islamic finance in Australia except for debt, and we don’t do debt – from an investment point of view it’s actually quite good.” Yassine concluded.