Azmin Ali has defended Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) which drew criticism after announcing the lowest dividend for its Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) trust unit since 1999.
The economic affairs minister said the current management of PNB, which inherited certain legacy issues from the previous management, had done its best given the current economic situation.
"It involved a [payout of] RM9 billion [to more than 10 million unitholders]. This is not a small amount," he told reporters when met at the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 today.
"In the current situation, PNB has done [its] level best to ensure that depositors and shareholders received better returns for many years to come," he added.
Azmin said the performance of the economy and market had also contributed to the low dividend.
"On top of that, there is also the governance issue - what happened in the past.
“The new management of PNB tried their level best to ensure that governance and accountability are the pillars of the new team," he added.
He was responding to opposition leaders who criticised the Pakatan Harapan government for PNB's poor performance.
On December 18, PNB announced an income distribution of five sen a unit and a bonus of 50 sen for ASB for 2019, despite a 7.2 percent contraction in Bursa Malaysia's FBM KLCI year-to-date.
PNB chairperson Zeti Akhtar Aziz said PNB was satisfied with its performance given the volatility of the world economy.
Meanwhile, Azmin said none of the proposals received on bids to become the strategic partner of the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) was attractive enough for Khazanah.
"We had a meeting on Dec 17 and the matter was discussed. But the proposals which were presented to the board were not attractive enough for us to decide.
"The prime minister, the (Khazanah) chairperson and the board agreed that we should look into other options before we can come out with a final decision," he said.
In August 2019, Khazanah and the Malaysia Aviation Group Bhd (MAG) invited 20 potential investors to be MAS' strategic partner. They then shortlisted four strategic investors. - Mkini
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