THE RIGHT TIME
Right time to expand portfolio as ringgit has reached comfortable level against US dollar, says group CEO
PERMODALAN Nasional Bhd aims to grow its international investment portfolio next year as the ringgit has reached a ʻcomfortable levelʼ of RM4.09 against the US dollar. The core focus will be on public equity, says group chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad.
PERMODALAN Nasional Bhd (PNB) plans to expand its international investment portfolio next year now that the ringgit has reached a “comfortable level” of RM4.09 against the US dollar.
“We have always said we will heighten our overseas investments when the time is right, and with the ringgit now at RM4.09 against the dollar, we believe that now is the right time,” said group chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad at the group’s financial results announcement here, yesterday.
“I must, however, stress that we will not go at this aggressively, but judiciously, so as to ensure that we will secure the best returns for our investments and eventually to our investors and unit holders.”
On the kind of assets PNB was keen on, Abdul Rahman said the core focus would still be on the group’s “bread and butter” — public equity.
“Our core focus would be on public equity, which is our bread and butter, as we have seen that equity returns are better than other asset classes globally. We will, of course, go about it carefully, especially in terms of equity asset management.
“The second asset class that we will look into is property. We had earlier this month sold our Australian asset, Santos Place, in Brisbane for A$370 million (about RM1.14 billion) to Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd. That had yielded great returns, and we are looking for similar types of investments,” he said.
As of last month, PNB only had 1.8 per cent international exposure, of which 48 per cent was in
public equities, 42 per cent (property) and 10 per cent (cash).
Meanwhile, group chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar said
he expected Malaysia’s positive economic growth momentum to continue next year.
“As long as we keep seeing a stable income growth in the country, decent gross domestic product (GDP) growth of more than four per cent and strong performances for corporates, we should do just fine.
“We also expect the price of Brent crude to continue rebounding, but for us the ‘sweet spot’ would be around the US$60 (RM244.74) per barrel whereby it could generate good revenue for country and not too burdensome on the consumer,” he added.
PNB’s total assets under management grew to RM276.5 billion as of last month, representing an increase of 4.6 per cent year-onyear.
Wahid earlier said PNB had revised its GDP growth forecast for the year to 5.8 per cent from 4.3 per cent on the back of the positive growth momentum in the second half, mostly due to better performances of the manufacturing, construction, exports and services segments.