Walkers has advised Sidra Capital, a leading Shari'a-compliant asset manager headquartered in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on the formation and launch of a Shari'a-compliant fund structure in the Cayman Islands.

The purpose of the fund is to facilitate investment into industrial property assets in the United States by Islamic investors within the Kingdom. The fund was fully subscribed at US$155 million within three weeks of the launch.

International law firm Mayer Brown acted as lead counsel to Sidra Capital, with Walkers acting as Cayman Islands counsel. The Walkers team was led by Partner Tom Cochrane, with assistance from Senior Associate Tom Hagger.

Tom Cochrane commented: "We are working on a lot of these types of fund structures from our Dubai office and they are becoming increasingly popular among asset managers looking to raise capital from Islamic investors. These investors typically have significant capital to deploy and these structures allow them to do so in a Shari'a-compliant manner."

"We are delighted to have worked with Sidra Capital and Mayer Brown on this very significant mandate".