Lunate Expands Thematic ETF Offerings With Dual Listings on ADX and Xetra

Welcome to FinTech TV.

I'm Remy blur.

This January, Abu Dhabi investment firm Lunot launched its 4 range of uses compliant thematic ETFs on ADX.

There are also sit on the Deutsche Borse Zetra exchange, marking the first such listing from a Middle East provider in Europe.

Now these include the Boreas S&P AI data, power and infrastructure use at CTF launched on ADX in mid January, and the.

S&P absolute luxury uses ETF launched on ADX on January 27th.

There are dual listed on Europe's exchange along with Abu Dhabi's ADX hints at a growing environment for innovative trading funds in those regions.

Well joining me to tell us more about this launch is Sharif Salem, partner and head of markets for Lunar.

So thank you so much for joining us.

Tell us about the January ETF launches on the ADX.

Thanks, uh, thanks for having me.

Yeah, so we, um, we launched, uh, today, actually the 27th, um, we launched a luxury ETF, uh, that we, uh, listed on the same day, uh, in the morning at ADX and it was followed closely a few hours later with a cross listing on the Zetra in uh Frankfurt.

This is the first time that a Middle Eastern asset manager has listed an ETF on.

Uh, on the, on the European exchange, um, this follows our previous cross listing, so the quantum ETF, uh sorry, the AI data power ETF was cross listed into um into Zetra earlier this month, but the actual launch and listing on ADX was, was at the end of, towards the end of last year.

So now we have two ETFs that are listed on Zetra.

They're both usage compliant. and accessible now to investors in Europe as well as of course here in the UAE.

And for our audience, can you tell us what themes your funds are exploring?

Yeah, so our range is quite diversified in terms of we started our first launch back in 2020.

All our launches other than the two that I mentioned that we've cross listed on Zetra recently are listed in the UAE.

18 of which listed on ADX.

The ETFs are basically what we've tried to do is to enable investors to be able to invest across different markets across the world in equity as well as fixed income.

So we have a number of equity stock markets covered such as the US, China, Turkey, Pakistan, as well as of course the regional markets.

We followed that up with the fixed income.

We focus a lot on providing investors because actually it's something that's missing globally is Sharia compliant ETFs.

So a lot of the ETFs that we've launched, 10 of them are Sharia compliant.

And of the three fixed income, one of them is it invests in global Sukuk, and then more recently we've been launching the thematics, AI data power, quantum computing, and more recently luxury, and it Really, the so we sort of started with the what you would call the next generation next generation technology, a lot of interest in AI data power, a lot of interest in quantum computing, a lot of growth happening there, and it adds a bit of we've added to the portfolio of ETFs that we're offering a type of Investment that adds a bit of risk versus the the more plain vanilla, you know, equity and fixed income markets, and we plan to expand on that going forward.

We've, as I, as you and I have mentioned, luxury was the more recent one.

And it's really trying to capture industries that are both growing, um, have resilience to downturns, or capturing new opportunities and new technologies.

And Sharif, can you explain how Boreas and North Wind are involved here?

Yeah, so North Wind is a is a JV with with Lunet, and North Wind is is backed by or or is made up of Gir Espicog as well as Christopher Vaas and they a lot of value in terms of their experience in thematics.

So they've helped us develop these thematic ETFs because a lot of research going goes into coming up with these indices with the index providers.

So we've worked on, for example, on quantum we've worked with Selective on the fashion, or sorry, on the absolute luxury we've worked on, we've worked with S&P and it's really trying to come up with some uniqueness to the index and how we, uh, how Um, it, it filters, the companies, um, and so they, they've helped us with that.

We've sort of built the, you know, first stage, second stage in terms of equity, fixed income, and, and they're helping us with the um with the thematics and building out the thematic range of uh of ETFs.

And expanding on thematics, what does the environment for thematic ETFs look like in Europe as well as the Middle East?

Well, the Middle East is a very nascent market in terms of in terms of ETFs, in terms of technology, and in terms of the thematics themselves, in terms of industries, as you may be aware, the UAE, Saudi Arabia are investing a lot.

In quantum computing and AI data power, luxury is is obviously a big sale and attraction here in the Middle East, not just for the region, but for a lot of the tourism that comes into the region.

So so as industries they continue to grow and they continue to be invested in in terms of ETFs, it's a very still a very nascent market in the Middle East.

We are the only provider currently of local providers of ETFs.

There are a couple of cross listed now on ADX.

There are a few.

ETF providers in, in, in Saudi Arabia, a couple in Qatar, but, um, but they're all equity giving exposure to sort of um um uh well known indices, um, MSCI or sorry, S&P 500, MSCI World indices, that sort of thing.

Um, but thematics is something new, um, and we're the first to, first to do that.

Uh, we're the first to offer that.

We've seen a lot of interest on our quantum and our, our AI data power, and I think a lot of that is coming from younger generation that is starting to discover the, the benefits, younger generation here that's starting to discover the benefits of investing and saving through ETF and, and trading uh ETFs.

And finally, what are your future plans at your organization?

Well, we, we continue to, to grow.

We're, we're, you know, we're fully invested in terms of, um, in, in terms of time and money and effort in, in building out the, the ETF and not just the ETFs themselves, but the ETF ecosystem.

Um, uh, we're, um, uh, building out the AP network, the market maker network, um, as you may have heard.

Uh, we've signed up with Jane Street to be the authorized participant in, in, in on Zetra.

So you know we're making a lot of progress in that because we realize that it's not just about launching ETFs, it's about building the ecosystem that will drive the demand and drive the market of ETFs, and that's what's important at the end of the day.

It's not the type of, of, or it's not, it's not only the type of ETFs that you have, but you Investors need to see that they're easily traded, that they're easily accessible, and we, we, we realize that.

And that's why we've also invested a lot of time in trying to build out the ecosystem around the ETFs, as well as, of course, continuing to offer more ETFs in the future.

Well, Cherif, thank you so much for your time today.

We appreciate it and we appreciate all of your insights.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for having me.