Malaysia’s leading exchange traded fund (ETF) manager, i-VCAP Management Sdn Bhd has launched the MyETF Thomson Reuters Asia Pacific ex-Japan Islamic Agribusiness Fund (MyETF-AGRI), which will focus on investments in businesses involved in upstream agricultural production.

 

This fund is i-VCAP’s first collaboration with Thomson Reuters and is also the first agriculture-related Islamic ETF in the world.

 

MyETF-AGRI will not invest solely in commodity stocks, but will invest in the 30 Shariah compliant companies within the newly launched Thomson Reuters Asia Pacific ex-Japan Islamic Agribusiness Index, the first of its kind in the Asia Pacific region, along the same weightings as they are on the benchmark index.

 

Through this strategy, the MyETF-AGRI will give investors exposure to a diversified field of Shariah compliant upstream agricultural companies operating in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand.

 

The fund, which is scheduled to be listed on the Bursa Securities Market on December 3 of this year, will be an open-ended fund, approved for a size of 500 million units. The subscription period is scheduled to close on November 19 at MYR1.00 per unit and a minimum subscription of 100 units.

 

The global value of the ETF market is nearing $3 trillion, however, Shariah-compliant ETFs account for only $320 million of that value according to i-VCAP. Malaysia is the leader in the world for Shariah-compliant ETF products, with its four Shariah-compliant ETFs accounting for $75 million, or 23% of the total global Shariah-compliant ETF value.