Crescent Wealth, the Australian Islamic wealth manager, has chosen a US-run portfolio management firm for the imminent launch of its equity fund. 

Saturna Sdn, the Malaysia-based subsidiary of US firm Saturna Capital, will act as portfolio manager to the Crescent International Equity Fund to be launched later this year. With the partnership, Crescent Wealth says it hopes to replicate in Australia the strong fund performance Saturna experienced in the US in 2011.

"Saturna has had tremendous success adhering to the principles of Islamic-based investing, favouring companies with low debt-to-equity ratios and avoiding those with high price-to-earnings ratios," said Talal Yassine, managing director of the Australian firm. 

Saturna Capital currently manages some $3.8 billion in assets and has partnerships with some of the largest equity fund managers worldwide, such as Amana Income and Amana Growth Funds. 

The new Crescent Wealth fund is its second, following Crescent Australian Equity Fund which was launched in October last year. It also introduced the Thomson Reuters Crescent Wealth Islamic Australia Index in 1 February 2012. Three more funds are in the pipeline for this year.