How the EPF stacks up against other funds

Growth strategy: Shahril says EPF is keen on growing its exposure in other asset classes as well as increasing its equity investments overseas.

BY almost any measure, the returns delivered by the Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) investment managers over the past decade would be considered as “supernormal” – or profits that consistently exceed initial, conservative expectations.

Last week, Malaysian research outfit IQI Holdings estimated that the average annual return for sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) globally last year was 4.2%. This essentially means that despite reporting a lower yield of 5.7% for 2016, the EPF has trumped the global average by a wide margin, said IQI’s chief economist and investment strategist Shan Saeed to Bernama.