Palestine Dedicated Fund Ranked as the Top Performing Fund According to Zawya
Global Investment House (Global) announced today that the Palestine Dedicated Fund was ranked as the top performing fund in the MENA region according to Zawya, a leading financial data provider in the region. The top rank for the Palestine Dedicated Fund comes on the back of an exceptional year-to-date return of 14.3% and a NAV of USD89.27 which led to a 12% alpha since its inception in 2006.
Mr. Talal Samhouri, Head of MENA Asset Management at Global said, "The Palestine Dedicated Fund is a country dedicated fund established in April 2006 to capitalize on the growth prospects of the Palestinian economy along with the attractive valuations of the Palestinian companies and is the first and only mutual fund in the world that is dedicated to invest in Palestine”.
He continued that the good performance of the fund was the result of our superior research capabilities and stock selection strategy that we have adopted and supported by the good performance of the Palestine Securities Exchange.
The Palestine Equities benchmark “Al Quds Index” is up an impressive 15.5 percent in 2009, significantly outperforming its Arabian and Emerging market counterparts. Mr. Samhouri stressed, “Even in 2008, Al Quds Index shed only 16 percent compared to 55 percent and 54 percent for MSCI Arabian and Emerging Indices respectively”.
He pointed out that Palestinian equities have seen modest earnings contraction relative to the regional average and that has kept price multiples intact. Palestinian equities are trading at a leading P/E of 8.23x compared to the MENA average of 9.22x.
Mr. Samhouri said, “Palestinian equities present one of the best defensive equity bets in the world and seem poised to continue to outperform the MENA and emerging market equities in 2009.”
Regarding the current international financial crisis, Mr. Samhouri explained that the Palestinian economy is exhibiting resilience to the difficult economic conditions. This is attributed to the economy’s small size and its limited exposure to international trade and capital markets.
He added that the Palestinian banking sector has shown robust asset growth while other banks in the region are posting significant write-downs and lending is coming under pressure.
The Palestinian economy is highly dependent on foreign aid from developed countries and a recent report issued by the World Bank paints a positive picture for aid inflows in 2009 and expects donor countries to continue to supply aid despite the difficult economic conditions.
On the political front, Samhouri believes that any improvements in the political situation will be a trigger for exceptional performance. In addition, recent statements made by PM Salam Fayyad emphasized that the reforms adopted by the government has placed the economy on the right track to self-efficiency and less reliance on foreign aid in 2009.
It is worth noting that Global currently manages more than 38 investment funds with diversified strategies and investment objectives, most of which have outperformed their respective indices.
