PNB declares six sen income distribution for AS1M

Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) today announced an income distribution of 6.0 sen per unit for Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS1M) for the financial year ending Sept 30, 2017.

This involved a total payout of RN724.10 million, which would benefit more than 390,000 account holders who currently own 12 billion units, said PNB group chairperson, Abdul Wahid Omar.

“AS1M recorded a net income of RM600.47 million, a 16 percent growth from RM517.28 million in 2016, which was attributed to a stronger domestic equity market performance, particularly in the finance and services counters,” he said at a media briefing on PNB’s third-quarter performance and AS1M income distribution here today.

Abdul Wahid said: “We are pleased to have sustained the dividend level for AS1M and the fund’s stronger financial performance would allow us to build additional reserves to support future distribution.”

Meanwhile, Abdul Wahid also announced that PNB recorded a net income of RM10.05 billion up to Aug 31, 2017, a growth of 8.8 percent compared to the same period last year, while assets under management (AUM) rose 4.2 percent to RM268.6 billion.

“Out of the total AUM, unit trust funds constituted RM228 billion while the remaining RM40.6 billion are the company’s proprietary funds,” he added.

Currently, he said the non-bumiputera portion for AS1M units has been fully subscribed while there is a balance of about 1.5 billion units under the bumiputera quota.

Meanwhile, on the Budget 2018 wish list, Abdul Wahid said PNB hoped the government would look for suitable incentives to promote private capital and venture capital growth in this country.

On the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) forecast, he said PNB had revised upwards its forecast growth from 4.3 to 5.3 percent.

“We have revised our GDP target on the back of strong growth in the construction sector which has a significant number of infrastructure projects ongoing currently and we also see momentum from the agriculture and manufacturing sectors,” he said.

- Bernama