State Govt gets RM90m from GLCs
Published on: Tuesday, August 02, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: Government agencies in Sabah contributed dividends amounting to RM90.88 million last year, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.This was part of the total dividends of RM94.57 million received by the state government, he said."I believe with good financial management and corporate governance, the amount of dividends could be increased in the coming years," he said during his speech when officiating at the Members of the Board of Directors of Statutory Bodies and Government Agencies Course here Monday.ADVERTISEMENT The text of his speech was delivered by Minister of Special Tasks Datuk Teo Chee Kang.Elaborating, Musa said loans that could be claimed in 2015 were still high compared with the amount paid that year which resulted in arrears in revenue.Towards this end, he hoped the state's statutory bodies and government agencies which were able to pay the loans to do so based on conditions of the agreements to ensure the state's revenue increased and could be used for the planned development projects.Musa also hoped more investors, including government agencies, would come forward and consider SAS (Saham Amanah Sabah) as an investment vehicle. He said SAS has shown improvements in its performance and that success can only be achieved by any organisation including Saham Sabah Bhd (SSB) if guided by good corporate governance. ADVERTISEMENT "Moving forward, SSB must continue to practice sound management, be professional, transparent and accountable at all levels," he said, after it announced an income distribution of 2 sen per unit for Saham Amanah Sabah's (SAS) first interim income distribution. This will involve a total payout of RM24,894,000 based on 1,244,700,000 units involving 52,115 investors as at July 28 this year.As at July 28 this year, the company achieved a gross income of RM30,711,380, deriving from SAS investments in the stock market, dividend income and money market, which attributed 81.35 per cent, 12.22 per cent and 6.43 per cent, respectively.
ADVERTISEMENT
SSB Chairman Datuk Marcus Mojigoh said the positive result was achieved despite the low and unsettling commodity prices like crude oil and crude palm oil coupled with the slow growth of the global economy and effects from Britain's decision to exit the European Union. After deducting manager's expenses and provision for taxation, the distributable income amounted to RM25,159,838, he said. "This represents an income yield of 5.72pc on investment based on the Net Asset Value (NAV) per unit of RM0.3494 as at January 2 2016," he said in a statement.He said if the appreciation in Net Asset Value (based on the ex-distribution price of RM0.3535) of RM0.0041 or 1.18 per cent is included, this will give a total return of 6.90pc. The income distribution will be paid to 44,515 individual investors, 7,317 investors under the Hardcore Poor Scheme, 231 investors with bank loans and 52 (0.10pc) corporate investors. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
Since its inception over 21 years ago SAS has declared 19 distributions involving a total payment of RM542,873,471 to date. Towards this end, Mojigoh hoped more investors would come forward especially the government agencies which have the means to diversify their investment or increase their investment in the SAS as there are still available units for sale.