KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), which saw a 6.8% in asset under management (AUM) to RM295.2 billion as at Nov 30, 2018, recorded proforma net income of RM15.30 billion for the first 11 months of 2018.
PNB chairman Tan Sri Zeti Aziz said at a media briefing that the strategy forward is to embark on a more robust risk management and assess investments activities taken on a case-by-case basis against the backdrop of a challenging environment due to moderate gross domestic product growth both domestically and internationally.
She noted that it is crucial to have a diverse portfolio ranging from fixed income, equity, financial and real estate, to spread the investment risk.
“We are also looking at investments with recurring income,” she added.
On paring down stakes in strategic and core companies, Zeti said assessments will be made based on the outlook of the industry and the potential of these companies being restructured with organisational transformation.
She said divestments could potentially be made in parts rather than a blanket one.
PNB plans to undertake a mid-term review of its strategic plan concentrating on the areas of strategic asset allocation, enterprise risk management and organisational transformation as well as to accelerate the diversification of its investment portfolio in higher yielding asset.
PNB president and group CEO Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad said amid the challenging market environment, most of its asset classes have sustained its performance. Public equity contributed to nearly 75% of total income while private investment accounted for about 3%.
He said PNB has also engaged six external fund managers to generate long term private equity returns for which deployment is expected in 2019.
For real estate, he noted some divestments are expected this year and PNB will be guided by its real estate investment framework through which it has identified areas and segments which could churn positive returns.
Abdul Rahman said the results of investee companies have been mixed as companies such as Sime Darby Plantation Bhd and Sime Darby Property Bhd are being bogged down by the movement of commodity prices and challenging property market respectively, while MNRB Holdings Bhd and Chemical Company of Malaysia Bhd (CCM) are performing better.
He said corporate earnings have been disappointing with the FBM KLCI declining 8.1% as at Dec 20 making it the fourth out of five years the index has recorded a negative price return.
“We recognise that the growth of our strategic companies can only come through the improvement of operational performance - growing their net income,” he added.
Abdul Rahman said PNB will be working with its strategic companies through its public equity framework—whereby it will engage with the board and management to create value creation and to sustain earnings growth.
It will step up efforts to engage with core companies to transform their performance in order to rest the decline of shareholder values and to drive earnings. Sapura Energy Bhd is one such company in which PNB is in the midst of becoming its second largest substantial shareholder.
On another note, PNB’s unit trust management company Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd declared an income distribution of 6.50 sen per unit and a bonus of 0.5 sen per unit representing a total payout of 7 sen for Amanah Saham Bumiputera for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2018.
As for Amanah Saham Nasional, it announced an income distribution of 3.25 sen per unit representing a dividend yield of 5.1% based on the net asset value of the fund as at December 20, 2018.
