PNB committed to declaring competitive dividends this year

PNB group chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar speaking during the media briefing on PNB Strategic Plan 2017 - 2022 at Grand Hyatt Hotel yesterday. IZZRAFIQ ALIAS / The Star. November 24, 2016.

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 (pic) 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 of the year.

“This year, we expect the corporate sector to perform well in terms of improvement in earnings, which is expected to increase between 5% and 7%,” he said during a corporate networking function held on Monday 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 of 5% annually until 2022.

Abdul Wahid said the fund’s annual growth had dropped from an average of 13%, previously, to 5% last year, as most investors had reached their investment limit, especially in Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) and Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASN).

“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 2016, PNB had managed RM260bil in funds, involving 212 billion units in circulation.

Meanwhile, Abdul Wahid said PNB targeted 150,000 visitors for the six-day MSAM 2017, themed ‘Touching Malaysian Lives’, aimed at informing the community on the involvement of the companies under the PNB Group in the lives of the people.

The highlight of this year’s event included the PNB-MIDF Entrepreneurs Symposium and MNRB Ringgit Savvy, PNB’s financial literacy programme.

Since 2000, the annual educational initiative had attracted more than 3.3 million visitors. - Bernama