• Offers investors Sharia’a-compliant investment exposure to US equipment leasing market
• Targets IRR of 6% – 7% along with regular quarterly cash distributions

Dubai, August 31, 2015: EIIB-Rasmala, a leading asset management and financing group, announced the first closing of its Rasmala Leasing Fund 2 (‘the Fund’), with a target of US$125 million in capital commitments.

The launch of the Fund follows significant investor appetite for Rasmala Leasing Fund 1 and will offer investors the same stable, low-risk and attractive return profile through a diversified portfolio of Sharia’a-compliant, asset-backed equipment leases with predominately US-domiciled high quality corporate credit lessees. The Fund targets an IRR of 6% to 7%, net of fees and expenses, and a minimum targeted annual cash distribution of approximately 8.5%.

The Fund focuses on low-obsolescence equipment leases, including a variety of long-life items such as rail, manufacturing, material handling, mining, construction, logging, machine tools and trailers.

Leasing is the largest single form of commercial finance for equipment in the US. Both 2013 and 2014 were successively record years for the equipment financing market in the US, and investment in equipment is expected to grow 5% in 2015, according to the Q3 update of the 2015 Equipment Leasing & Finance U.S. Economic Outlook recently released by the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation.

Eric Swats, Head of Asset Management at EIIB-Rasmala said: “The Rasmala Leasing Fund 1, which closed for commitments in March 2015, has been a success with over US$60 million in capital contributions and investments. It has already distributed US$7.41 million back to investors as of 1st of August 2015. In response to the success of this initial fund, the positive feedback we received from investors, and on the basis of the income generating and overall return potential from equipment leasing, we launched the Rasmala Leasing Fund 2. Today, we are delighted to announce its initial closing, achieving another key milestone in the evolution of Rasmala’s Alternative Investments.”

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Lukasz Gwozdz Associate Finsbury

M: +971 (0) 52 649 8556
E: Lukasz.Gwozdz@insbury.com

About EIIB-Rasmala

Mouna Sounni
Sales & Marketing Associate Rasmala Investment Bank Ltd.

M: +971 (0) 52 642 4868
E: mouna.sounni@rasmala.com

EIIB-Rasmala (‘The Group’) is one of the largest, independent financial institutions focused on the GCC markets with client assets of over $1.1bn. The Group’s primary focus is to provide investment management and financing solutions to clients in the UK and MENA region. The Group’s parent company, EIIB, is London-headquartered and listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange. EIIB was established in the United Kingdom as the first investment bank to operate on wholly Islamic basis. EIIB-Rasmala employs approximately 100 staff in London, Dubai, Muscat, and Cairo.