PERMODALAN Nasional Bhd (PNB) has announced an income distribution of 5 sen and a bonus of 0.5 sen per unit for Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) this year, despite a 7.2% contraction in Bursa Malaysia’s FBM KLCI year to date.

Chairman Zeti Akhtar Aziz said this involves a payout of RM9 billion to more than 10 million unit holders.

She said the number of ASB unit holders has surpassed the 10 million mark for the first time.

“(We) are satisfied as the situation is very challenging,” she said when asked whether PNB is happy with the performance, at the dividend announcement in Kuala Lumpur today.

She said the market has become much more challenging, pointing to the financial market volatility, US-China trade war, geopolitical tensions and slowdown in global trade this year.

Nevertheless, she said, ASB is able to deliver a total income distribution of RM9 billion out of its realised gains, buffered by its increasing international investments as planned under PNB’s Strategic Asset Allocation framework.

Locally, she said, FBM KLCI remains volatile, while the ringgit is undervalued.

Zeti said Bursa Malaysia is expected to perform better in the second half of next year as some risks subside and the ringgit becomes range-bound until the second quarter of 2020.

President and group CEO Jalil Rasheed said 65% of ASB’s investments are in the Malaysian stock market.

“If the stock market value declines, we will be affected, as we pay dividends from the realised gains. So if share prices don’t go up, it will be difficult for us to generate returns on investment.

“However, unit holders need not worry as all investment decisions undergo a stringent evaluation process.”

Last year, PNB announced an income distribution of 6.5 sen with a bonus of 0.5 sen per unit for ASB. In 2017, it was 7 sen with a bonus of 0.25 sen.

For Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN), the company announced an income distribution of 2.75 sen per unit this year.

This reflects a dividend yield of 4.4% based on the net asset value (NAV) of the fund as of December 16, said PNB in a statement.

A total payout of RM49 million will be distributed to 1.22 million ASN unit holders, with more than 1.78 billion units held.

“As of November 30, ASN recorded a net-profit income of RM53.5 million for 11 months of the financial year.”

It said the dividend will be reinvested into additional units and automatically credited into unit holders’ accounts on January 2 next year based on the NAV per unit as of December 31. – Bernama, December 18, 2019.