SINGAPORE: Malaysia’s largest asset manager, Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), plans to add infrastructure assets into its portfolio from next year to diversify its exposure and navigate the current high inflationary environment, its top executive said.
PNB, which managed RM336.7bil of assets in 2021, has the majority of its portfolio invested in public equities, both local and international, besides private investments and real estate, among others.
“It’s great as an asset class as it further diversifies our portfolio and improves the risk return characteristics of the portfolio,” PNB’s Group CEO Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn told Reuters in an interview during a visit to Singapore.
“People are starting to look at how to protect their portfolios against the deterioration of value coming from inflation,” Zulqarnain said, adding that globally, funds were under allocated to infrastructure as an asset class.The move by the state-owned investment manager comes at a time when global private equity firms and asset managers are moving in on billions of dollars of infrastructure assets across South-East Asia, lured by the sector’s growth prospects and stable, long-term returns. — Reuters
