Oasis Group Holdings' wins Islamic fund awards

Crescent Global Equity Fund is best in the region

Bahrain, 6^th March 2006: Oasis Group Holdings' Crescent Global Equity Fund received top honors at the inaugural Failaka Islamic Fund Awards 2006 held yesterday at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Bahrain.

Winners of the HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Islamic Finance Award in 2005, the South African Global Islamic Fund Management Group won the `Best Islamic Global Equity Fund Award' for delivering superior investment performance in its category. The Shariah-compliant investment fund has consistently topped global equity investment rankings, significantly outperforming its competitors and even its own benchmarks.

"We are delighted to receive this prestigious award for the Crescent Global Equity Fund, which continues to generate robust returns for investors, and continues to reach all time highs daily," said Adam Ismail Ebrahim, CEO, Oasis Group Holdings. "More importantly, however, this recognition affirms our top-notch approach to Shariah-compliant fund management."

Failaka International, a leading fund research and consultancy organization devoted exclusively to monitoring Islamic funds, instituted the awards to provide fund managers in the region a credible Islamic Fund recognition and ranking system.

"Our philosophy always has been to generate superior returns at lower than market risk. We have been able to do this successfully by identifying securities that have undervalued stream of sustainable cash flow and well diversified exposure to various asset classes. This approach successfully minimizes the inclusion of securities that erode investor capital. Our Shari'ah compliant fund in South Africa, the Crescent Equity Fund, generated performance of 34.7% in US$ in comparison to its South African bench mark of 14.19% and the MSCI performance of 4.51% per annum," Ebrahim added.

"It is evident that the returns have been good even with little downside correlation in the market. During this period the fund participated in approximately 95% of the up-cycle, whilst only participating in approximately 40% of the downside cycle, thereby out-performing its bench mark as well as its piers."

The 'Best Islamic Global Equity Fund Award' is a welcome addition to Oasis' award-winning portfolio of investment funds, which have been the driving force behind the company's impressive growth since its inception. The Crescent Global Equity Fund generated a return gross of fees of 15.1%, since inception in December 2000 to January 2006, versus the 1.2% performance of the Dow Jones Islamic Index (DJIX). In this respect an investor would have doubled his money if invested with Oasis whilst only having received a 6% increase if invested in the DJIX.

Oasis is currently in discussions with several of the region's largest financial organizations and major institutional investors to enhance its presence in the region, positioning itself in the middle of a maturing financial market. The regional expansion of Oasis is aimed at providing corporate and individual investors in the region a professional asset management services company that has an enviable track record of success in the industry. Oasis plans to bring its investment expertise into the region by the end of 2006.

Oasis Group Holdings is an asset management company currently managing assets of US$ 3.4bn with the headquarters in Cape Town, South Africa and offices in Johannesburg, South Africa and Dublin, Ireland. The company manages assets on behalf of listed and private companies, retirement funds, educational institutions, trust funds, unit trust management companies, high net worth individuals and multi-managers. Oasis offers domestic and global trust funds divided into conventional funds (Oasis Range) and Shari'ah-compliant funds (Crescent Range), as well as a retail retirement range that is entirely Shari'ah compliant.

As a leader in Shari'ah compliant funds, Oasis adheres to the investment guidelines established by the Dow Jones Islamic Index's Shari'ah supervisory Board. Its distinguished advisory board includes, Sheikh Nizam Yaquby, Professor Mohamed Daud Bakar, Sheikh Yusuf DeLorenzo, and Mohammed Shaheen Ebrahim, Chairperson of the Oasis Group.

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For more information, please contact:
Wadad Tabbara
TRACCS Public Relations
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Email: wadad@traccs.net