Bahrain’s pioneer in retail and commercial banking, BBK, yesterday announced the launch of the BBK-ING (L) Invest Middle East & North Africa fund. It is an open ended equity fund that seeks long term capital appreciation by investing in a portfolio of companies whose securities are listed in the GCC and MENA markets. The fund aims to invest in listed equities after rigorous research is conducted before stocks are selected and intends to focus on the GCC markets. The fund is available for subscription starting from the 8th of February 2010.

With a fund rating of ‘AA’ by Standard & Poor’s, the BBK-ING (L) Invest Middle East & North Africa fund brings with it various advantages like daily liquidity, highly regarded investment managers with an excellent track record, thorough fundamental analysis for investment decision making and risk management capabilities of international standards amongst others.

“In keeping with our aim of providing our customers with a variety of attractive products, we have yet again lived up to our promise in the form of the BBK-ING (L) Invest Middle East & North Africa fund. The Bank has conducted due diligence and decided to invest in the fund. This fund has had a proven success record with a performance of 34.2% in the year 2009. To provide complete transparency to our customers, a monthly detailed report will also be sent to all investors and with the international risk management capabilities of ING we are sure this product will see great success,” said A.Karim Bucheery, CE of BBK.

Other benefits of the fund include: no performance fee charged, no redemption charges involved and no lock up period for the investment.