Value Partners Group Limited has successfully listed their first Shariah China A-Share ETF on Bursa Malaysia. The ETF was officially launched on July 12 and is managed by Value Partners Asset Management Malaysia Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Value Partners Groups Limited.
It is the flagship fund of Value Partners Malaysia’s offering to institutional and individual investors in Malaysia, providing investors exposure to Shariah-compliant stocks within the China A-Shares equity universe.
“We are very proud today to introduce, through the Bursa Malaysia, the world’s first exchange-traded fund, adopts a Shariah-compliant feature, and it is specializing in investing in securities on the Chinese mainland. We are very grateful to Bursa Malaysia for providing the platform, and we hope Kuala Lumpur will develop as a global center for Shariah-compliant products to invest in Chinese securities.” said Dato’ Seri Cheah Cheng Hye, Value Partners’ Co-Founder, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer.
“Our new ETF, although designed to be Shariah-compliant, is also suitable to non-Muslims, as it gives access for the Malaysian public to a basket of very high quality and carefully selected stocks in mainland China,” he added.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has seen an increasing number of investors taking a strategic approach towards sustainable investing. This has given Shariah-compliant products much potential given the similarities in ethical consideration and social responsibility. Supported by a well-developed Islamic finance framework and robust Islamic capital market, the listing of this Shariah ETF is therefore well placed to meet this growing demand,” said Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar, Chairman of Bursa Malaysia during the keynote address at the listing address.
The Group’s Co-Founder has also expressed his optimism about China’s economic growth and further indicated that the country’s very strong economic potential will allow the country to become probably the world’s largest economy by 2030.
He further said that China’s rising middle class is driving the demand for a variety of products, and the Chinese people will reallocate their huge savings away from properties and bank deposits to equities.
“This is another major source of growth for the Chinese stocks. In addition, China’s A-Shares have been included in major indices in recent years. The growing foreign interest and participation in the Chinese A-shares market could be a transformative event, giving investors a unique opportunity to optimize global equity portfolios,” he said.
The ETF is structured to comply with Shariah principles to enable participation from all walks of investors. There are currently only 5 Shariah-compliant ETFs listed on Bursa, and this ETF will be the sixth, providing Shariah and non-Shariah investors further options for diversification.
Due to its large population size and independent economy, market correlation between China A-Shares and other equity markets remains low, making this China A-Shares ETF an important portfolio diversification tool for investors.
Recently, Wahed Technologies Sdn Bhd (Wahed Invest Malaysia) had announced the collaboration with Value Partners Asset Management Malaysia Sdn Bhd (Value Partners Malaysia) in making available the recently launched Fund on their platform.
