PNB declares 6.40 sen dividend for ASW 2020
Published on: Friday, August 28, 2015
Kuala Lumpur: Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), Thursday announced a 6.40 sen dividend for a unit of the Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW 2020) for the financial year ending Aug 31, 2015.The dividend was a decline of 0.20 sen a unit from the 6.60 sen declared last year.PNB Chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said the rate for income distribution was reasonable on the back of the stock market downturn and was also competitive against other investment instruments of similar features and risk profile.ADVERTISEMENT He said the income distribution this year involved a payout of RM1.14 billion, based on the average minimum equity held for the ASW 2020 financial year."The payment is expected to benefit 883,422 unitholders who subscribed for 17 billion ASW units," he told reporters when announcing the dividend, here.He said the income distribution will be automatically credited to the unitholders' accounts on Sept 1.For investors who participated in the ASW 2020 through the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), the income will be credited directly into their EPF accounts through the Members' Investment Scheme.ADVERTISEMENT "Up to Aug 25, 2015, ASW 2020 had gross income of RM1.39 billion. The profit from the sales of shares contributed RM709.04 million or 51 per cent of gross income."Dividend income from investee companies contributed RM477.06 million or 34.3 per cent, and the remaining RM203.74 million or 14.7 per cent was from short-term instruments and other income," he added. Also present at the ceremony was PNB President and Group Chief Executive, Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman.
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"The performance of ASW 2020 was greatly affected by the performance of the domestic and global stock markets which were severely challenging of late.However, we are paying 6.4 sen a unit. Basically, the maximum distribution that we can actually make is 8.5 sen a unit."But we want to ensure that the portfolio we are managing will continue to record good performance from time to time...that's why we are paying 6.4 sen a unit," Hamad Kama Piah said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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He said due to the volatile market amid economic challenges, this scenario gave the fund an opportunity to accumulate investments."When the market is low, we have to aggressively look for investments that can give better yield in the future and there are some stocks which are good for investment now," he said, without divulging details on stock picking. –Bernama