ASNB announces income distributions for ASD and ASN 2

KUALA LUMPUR: Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB), a unit of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), announced income distributions of 6.30 sen per unit for Amanah Saham Didik (ASD) and 3.45 sen per unit for Amanah Saham Nasional 2 (ASN 2), for financial year ending June 30, 2016.

PNB Chairman, Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, said the income distribution for ASD involved a payout of RM329.12mil, benefiting 307,784 unit holders who subscribed for 5.23 billion units.

For ASN2, ASNB allocated RM50.09mil which would benefit 22,570 unit holders who subscribed for 1.45 billion units, he said.

"Up to June 24, 2016, the ASD fund has recorded gross income of RM428.42mil. Profit from sale of shares contributed RM240.58mil while dividend income from investee companies contributed RM115.39mil.

"The remaining income of RM72.46mil were derived from investments in short-term instruments and other income," he told a media briefing after announcing the income distributions here on Monday.

For ASN 2, Ahmad Sarji said, ASN 2 has been successful in achieving net sales despite negative performance of the stock market indicating that investors had taken the opportunity to lower their investment costs through dollar cost averaging.

Until June 24 this year, ASN 2 has recorded a gross income of RM48.75mil, of which RM23.49mil was derived from dividend income from investment in companies, sales of shares (RM19.31mil) and other income (RM5.95mil), he said.

Ahmad Sarji said the performance of ASN 2 was reasonable considering that the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI has declined 4.3% from 1,706.64 on June 30, 2015, to 1,634.05 on June 24 this year.

The FBM KLCI has been dwindling for two years in a row after recording a return of -9.4% for the financial year 2015, he said.

"Among the external factors are the economic slowdown in China, decline in commodity prices and deprecition of ringgit, the coming US presidential election and the divergence in global monetary policy with the rise of interest rates in the US as opposed to negative interest rates in some parts of Europe and Japan.

"These external factors have affected domestic corporate earnings, which then have been translated into lower share prices and dividend payout from listed companies," he said.

Ahmad Sarji said concern over the UK's Brexit referendum has also impacted the local and global market shares, which saw the world stock markets fell sharply.

The income distribution payment will be reinvested into additional units and will be automatically credited into the unit holders' accounts on July 1, 2016.

For ASN 2, the units will be credited based on the net asset value as at June 30, 2016.

Meanwhile, unit holders who subscribed for ASN and ASN 2 units through the Employees Provident Fund Members' Investment Scheme will have the income distribution credited directly into their respective EPF accounts. - Bernama