Malaysian REITs: Key financials based on various segments

LAST Saturday Malaysians were surprised when the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) announced a a dividend rate of 6.15% for conventional savings and 5.9% for syariah-based savings. The announcement was indeed a pleasant surprise when in general most expected the EPF to announce a payout of between 5% and not more than 6%. I must admit that I too thought at best, EPF would announce a rate of 5.6%.

According to the EPF, the total payout for last year’s performance was RM47.31bil, a drop of just 1.7% from the 2017 total payout of RM48.13bil. Considering the tough local equity markets, the EPF’s ability to generate RM29.28bil in equity investment income alone, which accounted for a total of 57.6% of its income for the year, is commendable.