Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz), one of the Middle East's leading investment banking and asset management companies, announced that three of its MENA mutual funds collectively won four Lipper Awards for best risk-adjusted performance. ‘Markaz Mumtaz Fund' won two awards for best Kuwaiti Equities Fund for the periods of three and five years. ‘Markaz Gulf Fund' won best MENA Equities Fund and ‘Markaz Islamic Fund' won best Islamic Kuwaiti Equities Fund, both for the period of three years. Amani Al-Omani, senior vice president of local and GCC Investments at Markaz, said “Markaz Funds have now won a total of eight Lipper Awards in the last three years alone. These awards recognize Markaz's commitment to achieving the best risk-adjusted performance through following a research driven methodology and investing in high quality assets.” “Mumtaz”, rated “A” by Standard & Poor's, is a winner of five Lipper Fund awards for the years 2010, 2008 and 2007, and recently won the Kuwait Equity Fund of the Year Award by MENA Fund Manager. It is an actively managed fund, targeting outperformance of the KIC index. It has achieved 23.1 percent CAGR since inception in 1999, outperforming its benchmark by 10.1 percent. Its net assets are worth KD68.4 million and the fund's investment decisions rely heavily on research driven considerations. Net asset value as of Feb. 28, 2010 is KD4.177. Markaz Islamic Fund, winner of two Lipper Fund awards for the years 2010 and 2008, was established in 2003 and aims to invest in Shariah-compliant quoted and unquoted equities in Kuwait.
