‘PNB committed to declaring competitive dividends this year’
KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) is committed to declare competitive dividend payout on its investment products this year, in line with the corporate sector’s positive forecast.
Group chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar said the projection was based on the investments made by
PNB in public-listed companies on Bursa Malaysia, which fared well in the first quarter.
“This year, we expect the corporate sector to perform well in terms of improvement in earnings, which is expected to increase between five and seven per cent,” he said during a corporate networking function, here, yesterday in conjunction with the Malaysian Unit Trust Week 2017, to be held from April 20-25.
He also projected that the size of the funds managed by PNB would grow by an average five per cent annually until 2022.
Abdul Wahid said the fund’s annual growth had dropped from an average of 13 per cent previously to five per cent last year, as most investors had reached their investment limit, especially in Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) and Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd.
“We have a limit for each investment, such as RM200,000 for ASB, therefore, its annual growth would be slowing down henceforth,” he said.
As of last year, PNB had managed RM260 billion in funds, involving 212 billion units in circulation.
Meanwhile, Abdul Wahid said PNB targeted 150,000 visitors for the six-day Minggu Amanah Saham Malaysia 2017, themed “Touching Malaysian Lives”.
Since 2000, the educational initiative had attracted more than 3.3 million visitors. Bernama