BNSC: Other major funds also invest in the USA

PETALING JAYA: The Employers Provident Fund (EPF) overseas assets had outperformed domestic investments directly resulting in higher dividends for its contributors, said the Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications team.

Its deputy director Eric See-To said this, there is nothing wrong with the EPF investing in American equities.  

"There is nothing wrong for the EPF to invest in USA equities. Other funds in the world such as the Japan pension funds, the Norway sovereign fund and Singapore's Temasek and GIC funds are heavily invested there," he said in a statement on Saturday. 

See-To said that the value of EPF's assets will continue to grow as it had experienced in recent years, growing from RM636bil at the end of 2014 to RM760bil at the end of June 2017.

"This is solid growth of RM124bil in just two and a half years," he said.

He said that EPF's planned US$4bil (RM16.8bil) investments in America is well within their current rate of increase as it translates to a RM56bil increase in EPF's total assets.

"In fact, EPF's total assets had grown RM28.67bil in the six months period between June 2017 and December 2016," he added.

He also said that EPF's plan to invest in the United States does not breach the foreign assets limit of 30% set by the Finance Ministry and that its fund managers will conduct their own due diligence to determine the timing and quantum of their investments in the US based on existing guidelines and policies.

"The EPF can always re-allocate their existing foreign investments, for example, shifting assets from the United Kingdom or Singapore to the USA, which will keep the 30% limit intact," he said, adding that investment re-allocations is a normal practice.

PKR Deputy president Rafizi Ramli (pic) had claimed that EPF's US$4bil investment in the US will breach the 30% foreign assets limit that binds EPF since its foreign assets is already at the 29% level as at end June 2017.

During his bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, Najib revealed that EPF, which currently has US$7bil (RM29.42bil) worth of investments in the US, intended to invest an additional US$3bil (RM12.6bil) to US$4bil (RM16.8bil) to support infrastructure redevelopment there.