RIYADH: UAE-based investment banking firm SHUAA Capital has launched three new Shariah-compliant funds in a move to offer more investment choices to institutional high-net-worth individuals and corporate investors. The new funds, which include SHUAA Global Sukuk Fund, SHUAA Global Equity Fund, and SHUAA North America Equity Fund, were launched under the Incorporated Cell Co. umbrella, the company said in a press release. SHUAA Global Sukuk Fund will seek to maximize total return over the medium to long term through a combination of capital growth and income by investing in sukuk and other Shariah-compliant debt instruments, it said. Whereas, SHUAA Global Equity Fund will primarily invest in global Shariah-compliant equities, and SHUAA North America Equity Fund will focus on North American Shariah-compliant equities. Funds are managed by SHUAA GMC, a wholly owned regulated subsidiary of SHUAA, which established the ICC fund structure in the Abu Dhabi Global Market in 2020 to launch differentiated fund strategies under the ICC platform. SHUAA GMC, which now manages a total of $200 million in assets under management, spanning five different funds under the ICC umbrella, is working to launch three additional funds in the first quarter of 2023. With these new funds, its assets under management under the ICC platform are expected to exceed $400 million. As part of its new fund pipeline, SHUAA said it also plans to add Saudi Arabia and Gulf Cooperation Council-focused funds to its ICC platform. Mideast’s first waste-to-hydrogen plant Three companies from the UAE, the UK and Japan have signed a memorandum of understanding as a first step to forming a consortium that will advance progress on the Middle East’s first waste-to-hydrogen plant in Sharjah. The MoU was signed between UAE’s BEEAH Group, Japanese conglomerate Air Water and Chinook Sciences, a UK-based innovator in waste-to-fuel technologies, to produce fuel cell-grade hydrogen from waste wood and plastic. BEEAH has expertise in waste management and material recovery, Chinook Sciences patented the world’s only universal thermal treatment system and gasification process, and Japanese firm Air Water has Hydrogen Refinement technology. The waste-to-hydrogen plant will use these companies’ expertise to transform waste wood and plastic into fuel-cell-grade green hydrogen. The plans for the waste-to-hydrogen plant include an on-site green hydrogen dispensing station capable of fuelling several vehicles, according to a press release. The UAE last year announced the Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative following COP26 in Glasgow, making it the first nation in the Middle East to announce a net-zero emissions strategy. The waste-to-hydrogen plant in Sharjah was first announced by BEEAH Group and Chinook Sciences Green in May 2021 and was formalized later in the same year with the commencement of development plans. Dubai residential market volumes spike in November Dubai’s total residential transaction volumes stood at 10,505 in November, recording an increase of 60.8 percent compared to the previous year, according to global property consultant CBRE. The spike in volumes was supported by a 63.3 percent rise in off-plan transactions and a 58.4 percent rise in secondary market transactions, it added. In the year to date to November 2022, Dubai recorded a total of 81,919 residential transactions, surpassing the record highs registered in 2009 over the same period. This is despite the fact that Dubai’s average residential prices increased by 9.5 percent in the 12 months to November. Over this period, the CBRE report showed that the emirate’s average apartment and villa prices increased by 9 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively. This comes as Dubai’s average apartment prices stood at 1,161 dirhams ($316) per square foot, while average villa prices stood at 1,374 dirhams per square foot. CBRE noted that these average rates for apartments and villas remain below the highs recorded in 2014 by 22 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively.