This new Islamic fund returned 11.7% since inception. Should you buy in?

Building a Shariah-compliant portfolio used to mean holding a global equity fund alongside a separate sukuk fund, and rebalancing between the two yourself whenever you remembered to. No single vehicle combined global equities and sukuk in one place — until the Maybank Global Shariah Multi-Assets-I A Dist SGD launched and closed that gap. For a while, it was the only global multi-asset option on our platform.

Another contender has now emerged.

The Lion-BIBDS Islamic Income & Growth Fund does the same job on paper — 70% global Shariah-compliant equities, 30% sukuk. Its institutional share class was incepted on 30 January 2026, pairing long-term capital growth with a regular income stream through a globally diversified, quality-focused portfolio. The retail share class launched on 9 June 2026, and has been available on our platform since 17 June 2026.

We take a closer look at the fund in this article.

The 70/30 split features two structural tilts

That 70/30 split isn't fixed. Lion Global Investors can shift either side by up to 10 percentage points, so equities could run as low as 60% or as high as 80%, with sukuk moving the other way to match. 

On the equity side, 70% sits in two index-tracking ETFs — the iShares MSCI World Islamic UCITS ETF and the Invesco Dow Jones Islamic Global Developed Markets UCITS ETF — and the remaining 30% is a basket of 15 to 30 high-conviction stocks picked by Lion Global Investors' own analysts (Chart 1).

Chart 1: A 70/30 split, with the equity sleeve divided between index trackers and single stocks

The fund can also hold up to 10% in cash and equivalents and up to 5% in a Shariah-compliant gold ETF — both included for diversification and risk management rather than as return drivers in their own right.

Lion Global Investors handles the equity side and the overall asset allocation calls, but the sukuk portion is sub-managed by BIBD Securities — the same firm that has run Lion-BIBDS Islamic Enhanced Liquidity Fund's sukuk book since March 2024. BIBD Securities wears a second hat too: its Shariah Advisory Body provides the compliance endorsement and certification for the fund as a whole, not just the sukuk sleeve it manages.

That sukuk sleeve yields 5.49% in USD terms (3.01% once currency-hedged back into SGD) and has an average credit quality of A-, as of 31 July 2026. Issuers from Saudi Arabia (42.1%) and the UAE (30.9%) make up the bulk of the portfolio. This isn't a choice unique to Lion-BIBDS. It's what the global sukuk market looks like right now. Saudi Arabia and the UAE alone make up 52% of the entire USD 428 billion market for USD-denominated sukuk. Named Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) issuers account for at least 58%, per Bloomberg data as of end December 2025. If you're holding USD-denominated Islamic fixed income anywhere, expect the same kind of concentration.

Within the equities sleeve, the fund also carries a structural overweight in the technology sector. Again, this isn't a Lion-BIBDS choice — it's a consequence of Shariah screening itself. The screen excludes conventional banks and any company carrying excessive interest-bearing debt outright, and financial firms are typically among the most heavily leveraged names in any conventional benchmark. Strip them out, and the remaining eligible universe tilts toward lower-leverage, cash-rich businesses — which today means technology.

Put the two sleeves together, and the 70/30 split features two structural tilts: toward US mega-cap technology on one side, Gulf sovereign and bank credit on the other. Neither is a flaw specific to this fund — but this is what holding Shariah-compliant assets looks like today.

Early performance has genuinely been good

If every Shariah-compliant multi-asset fund carries roughly the same tech tilt and roughly the same Gulf sukuk concentration, does it actually matter which one you hold?

On the numbers so far, yes.

The Lion-BIBDS Islamic Income & Growth Fund's institutional share class has returned 11.7% net of fees since its 30 January 2026 inception (total returns as of 28 August 2026). Maybank Global Shariah Multi-Assets-I's own institutional class, the only other global, multi-asset Shariah-compliant fund available on our platform, returned just 5.3% over the same period. On cost — using each fund's retail share class, Lion-BIBDS's annualised expense ratio runs at 1.50% p.a., against 1.82% for Maybank. When benchmarked against a broader peer group (most are not available on our platform), the fund's performance also stacks up favourably (Table 1).

Table 1: Performance comparison of Lion-BIBDS against its peers

Of these six, only Lion-BIBDS and Maybank Global Shariah Multi-Assets-I are available on our platform. The rest — including Maybank Global Mixed Assets, a similarly-named but entirely different, Malaysia-only fund — are shown for industry context, not as real alternatives.

So what you actually have is a strategy with a real, sizeable lead over its closest comparable competitor since inception. While the short track record limits how much weight we can put on its outperformance this year, it is nonetheless a promising start.

However, Lion-BIBDS lags behind on income. For investors in the distributing share class, Lion Global Investors targets a distribution yield of 5.5% p.a. in SGD terms, net of the management fee. That's a stated target, though — the fund hasn't actually paid out a distribution yet. Maybank Global Shariah Multi-Assets-I's A Dist SGD class, by comparison, carries an annualised yield of 6.02%, calculated from its most recent distribution.

Muslim investors are obligated to purify any non-compliant income their portfolio generates — donating the tainted portion to charity, rather than keeping it. Here's the good news: Lion-BIBDS does this for you automatically. If any part of the equity sleeve happens to generate income that isn't Shariah-compliant — interest earned on a cash balance, say — the fund doesn't pass that income on to you. It gets purified before it ever reaches your account, donated to charity rather than distributed. Without this, you'd have to calculate and donate it yourself.

Building around it: three funds that complement the Lion-BIBDS

Lion-BIBDS gives you a global equity-and-sukuk core. While buying this one fund and holding it as a long-term investment is a viable option, its 70/30 split leaves you little room to adjust when market conditions turn. It doesn't give you dedicated Asia or emerging-market exposure either. Three products on our platform address these gaps directly.

For Asia and emerging market exposure, the iShares MSCI EM Islamic UCITS ETF USD (Dist) (LSE: ISDE) is the natural pairing. At USD 830.4 million in net assets (as of 2 Sep 2026), it's the largest Shariah-compliant emerging market equity ETF. It won't map perfectly onto an Asia-only view, since emerging market exposure also carries weight in Latin America and EMEA markets. Even so, it's the closest Shariah-compliant proxy currently available in ETF form.

For spare cash, or capital to deploy when markets turn, the Lion-BIBDS Islamic Enhanced Liquidity Fund is worth holding alongside it. If you want to hold SGD, buy the SGD-H share class, which has returned an annualised 1.64% since its August 2024 inception, at an expense ratio of 0.54%. If you want to hold USD, the USD share class has returned 4.15% since April 2024, at an expense ratio of 0.55%. Think of it as dry powder, not a return-seeking holding in its own right.

And for investors who'd rather anchor their Shariah-compliant portfolio in Asia from the start, the Maybank Asian Growth and Income-I Fund is a genuinely Asia-concentrated alternative. It's a separate Maybank fund entirely from the Maybank Global Shariah Multi-Assets-I discussed earlier. Instead of a global equity-and-sukuk core, you get an Asian equity and global sukuk core. Taiwan and South Korea together make up 61% of its equity sleeve, and its disclosed top holdings — TSMC, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix — give investors direct exposure to the region's semiconductor supply chain.

A strong global core to build around

The Lion-BIBDS Islamic Income & Growth Fund is designed to be a long-term core holding, targeting a 5.5% p.a. distribution yield alongside capital growth. That yield is a target, not yet a realised payout, and one that currently trails what Maybank Global Shariah Multi-Assets-I already pays. Where Lion-BIBDS does lead is total return: a genuine lead over its closest comparable competitor since inception, measured on each fund's institutional share class — and on cost, Lion-BIBDS's retail share class also undercuts Maybank's.

It isn't complete on its own. Pair it with the iShares MSCI EM Islamic UCITS ETF USD (Dist) (LSE: ISDE) for the dedicated Asia and EM exposure it doesn't give you directly. Hold Lion-BIBDS Islamic Enhanced Liquidity Fund alongside it as dry powder for when markets turn. For investors who'd rather anchor their Shariah-compliant portfolio in Asia from the start, Maybank Asian Growth and Income-I Fund is a genuinely Asia-concentrated alternative — an Asian equity and global sukuk core instead of a global one.

So, should you buy in? As a core holding, yes — provided you're comfortable building your portfolio around a strategy with no track record of its own yet.

Declaration:

For specific disclosure, at the time of publication of this report, IFPL (via its connected and associated entities) and the analyst who produced this report hold a NIL position in the abovementioned securities.

This research report was prepared with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. iFAST Financial Pte Ltd does not rely exclusively on AI for content generation; the content of this report – including all investment theses, ratings, price targets and conclusions – has been independently reviewed and verified by the research analyst(s) to ensure accuracy and professional integrity.