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Amiri Capital
Interview with Bindesh Shah, partner and founder, Amiri Capital LLP

Amiri Capital LLP was founded in early 2006 by Bindesh Shah and Richard Ellis. The firm develops, markets and distributes Shariah-compliant investment products for Islamic investors worldwide and has developed its own proprietary Shariah Screening System, called Amiri S3, which scrutinises about 38,000 stocks globally for Shariah compliance.

What are some of the key drivers of growth for the Islamic finance industry? Considering these factors, what the opportunities being presented to new entrants into the space, and more specifically as it relates to alternative products?
The Islamic finance market is young but expanding even in, or maybe even because of, these challenging times in the world’s financial markets. One of the drivers of that expansion, of course, is the huge amount of liquidity in the Gulf. Another is the strong economic growth in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. This is creating a large pool of investable assets, some of which are already Islamic. Within both regions, though, there is a move toward doing more and more investing in Islamic structures.

In spite of this, there is a limited range of good quality Shariahcompliant investment products. Indeed, in the alternative space there are hardly any products. It is highly likely the investment industry in the Islamic sector will move in the same direction as the conventional sector, where there has been a shift toward alternative assets because of the desire to create more predictable and higher returns. This will happen in the Islamic sector as well.

In the context of alternatives, where do you see the industry in terms of investor acceptance and sophistication? What are the major impediments to bringing more of these products into the marketplace?
Potentially, over the next few years, there will be up to USD90bn available to the Islamic alternative investment market. That’s still small relative to the conventional alternative investment sector, even with the recent contractions, but it’s still big enough that even a small share is a prize worth having.

Part of the reason there is a dearth of alternative Islamic funds is that they are very time-consuming and difficult to launch. A conventional hedge fund takes, on average, a year and a half to go from idea to market. By contrast, it can take at least three years to launch a Shariah-compliant fund. An Islamic fund faces hurdles unknown to conventional hedge funds – specifically constructing a Shariah vehicle and getting it approved by Shariah scholars. This takes time and patience, particularly in launching something new and untested.

What have been some of the main challenges from the product manufacturing point of view? How can these be mitigated or managed?
Making an alternative investment of any sort Shariah-compliant is just the first hurdle. The second is attracting high quality managers, given that many are put off by the constraints they feel they would be faced with. The key here is to show the potential portfolio managers they will not be able landed with an administrative, legal and operational headache. This is done by setting up the legal structure for them and creating a managed accounts platform where we take care of the administration and operations. As a result of this all they have to really worry about is picking the stocks they want to buy or sell and checking them for Shariah compliance and using your nominated prime broker for the trades. What could be simpler than that? Once you show them this most of the time they are more than happy to run a Shariah compliant portfolio as this then opens up a new source of capital for them.

The third hurdle is managing everything in a cost effective way, so as to avoid creating any additional ongoing cost for the fund - to ensure It is no more expensive to run than a conventional fund. Of course, there will be differences in the cost structure, but the net effect should be broadly equal. This is necessary to reassure investors that their returns will not be hurt.

Can you describe the process you have undertaken to attain Shariah compliance? Are there any specific pitfalls or misconceptions that need to be addressed from the start?
The first step in creating a Shariah fund is to set up a Shariah supervisory committee, which passes judgement on the legality of the proposed fund’s structure. It’s important to understand that there’s not one body of thought in Islam; there are several schools. It’s essential to have a Shariah supervisory committee that covers most of these different schools and get the committee members to come to some sort of agreement. If you don’t, you could find yourself with a challenge in the Gulf, say, or Malaysia. It’s equally important to get a consensus decision, instead of relying on a majority vote. At the end of the day, the entire committee needs to be comfortable with the decisions it makes.

Why are Shariah compliant alternative solutions so complex and lengthy to develop? While the nonpermissibility of interest and/or leverage is at the forefront, what are other issues that must be taken into consideration?
There are specific problems with particular hedge fund strategies.Take, for instance, equity long/short, one of the principal hedge fund strategies, covering about 40%-60% of the market. The key problem with equity long/short from an Islamic perspective is that shorting in the conventional sense is not acceptable. First, shorting involves selling something you don’t own, and under Islamic law that is illegal. Secondly, when a manager receives the short proceeds, they are put in a bank account and earn interest – which, as is well known, is also not allowed.

The optimal solution is to devise a new structure that retains the economics of shorting but takes away these issues, while maintaining the commercial viability of the fund. It can’t just be fine from the Shariah perspective: it’s about everything coming together. In setting up an Islamic fund of funds, the real test for an underlying manager is not whether he or she is willing to give it a try, but whether he or she can make money. One other point: not only must the managers be able to work within the structure, but the prime brokers must be able to implement it. Most of the legal documentation in the conventional hedge fund sector has been developed over the past 20 years, and much of it is unacceptable under Islamic law (actually, now following the Lehman bankruptcy where many hedge funds found that their not as well protected by this legal documentation as they thought much of it is now under question in conventional markets as well). This means a great deal of work with the prime brokers, reengineering their systems and rewriting legal documentation.

While you have developed your capabilities internally, would single managers need to build their own product and compliance function as well? Are there any specific types of managers/strategies that are better suited to do this?
Let’s look at what managers have got to do that's different in an Islamic fund of funds. First, it would not be possible for a Shariah-compliant fund to invest in the managers' conventional funds because they will have any number of investments in them that would not be Shariah-compliant. Essentially, underlying managers can only run a dedicated managed account. They are offering investment expertise. In the end, this simplifies things because they are not required to run a fund. Of course a conventional single manager can set up their own single manager Shariah compliant fund but they would need to separate out the legal structure from their existing funds, establish their own Shariah Supervisory Committee and build their own Shariah compliance operational function. Therefore, it is possible but it all takes money and this could act a significant drag on performance for a single manager.

The next thing they need to take into account is that every investment must be checked against a Shariah screening system and every investment must be scrutinised to see if it meets an Islamic fund’s criteria. This can be unnerving for some managers. From the point of view of an Islamic fund of funds, the best managers are likely to be value managers, operating concentrated portfolios. They’re the most suitable to work in the Shariah space where the investment universe is limited by Shariah criteria and managers need to look at the stock more fundamentally than otherwise.

What are some of the issues relating to the product itself (i.e. portfolio construction, manager identification/ selection, diversification of idiosyncratic risk, etc)?
One of the criticisms of Shariah-compliant funds is that if the investment universe is reduced, then returns must also be reduced. Fortunately, that’s not true. Many academic studies have shown that if managers select from a smaller pool of stocks the returns are not reduced, but the volatility is slightly increased. Even that, however, can be quite marginal if the universe of potential stocks numbers in the thousands, rather than in the hundreds.

There is also the issue of the number of underlying managers. Shariah-compliant funds of funds will tend to have fewer managers than conventional funds of funds – principally because there are fewer managers who can meet the criteria of an Islamic fund. Some people say a true fund of funds needs a multiplicity of underlying managers to gain the benefits of diversification. But again, academic study after academic study has shown that you get 80% of the benefit of diversification by using just five managers.

We often hear about tapping Middle East liquidity and several industry guesstimates, on the ground though how crucial is product distribution and how does it differ from conventional products?
Marketing a Shariah-compliant product is different. Doing business in the Islamic world is about building relationships. You need to spend the time and effort to get to know the clients and understand their businesses. This can mean spending a lot of time in the region – not necessarily a hardship, but not something you need to do with a conventional fund.