Islamic digital robo-advisor Wahed has rolled out an exchange-traded product (ETP) underpinned by its first-ever exchange-traded fund (ETF), in a bid to widen the appeal of its fund to a larger demographic.
The ETP is benchmarked against the Wahed FTSE USA Shariah ETF (HLAL), which was launched on the NASDAQ in July 2019. The ETP, brought to market in collaboration with Leverage Shares, began trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on the 11th November 2022. It is targeting investors based in the UK and EU seeking exposure to an Islamic US equity ETF.
The ETP is engineered as such that it expands the availability of HLAL, which was previously not available to European investors. The ETF through the ETP will be passported across Europe and offered in US dollars, sterling pounds and the euro. The note’s expense ratio stands at 0.05%, in addition to the total expense ratio of the underlying HLAL shares in the basket.
The latest product is Wahed’s third passive equity solution, with HLAL being its first, followed by the Wahed Dow Jones Islamic World ETF, a Shariah compliant ESG-compliant ETF, which also debuted on the NASDAQ.
The new ETF closely follows the official launch of Wahed’s Islamic equity funding platform in September as the Islamic digital investment management company moves toward becoming a full-service Islamic fintech company.