KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) yesterday announced an income distribution of 6.50 sen per unit for the Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS 1Malaysia) for financial year ending Sept 30, 2011.
Its chairman, Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, said the second income distribution was an increase of 0.12 sen per unit from 6.38 sen last year.
“This translates into a payout of RM311.27 million, an increase of 53.32 per cent compared with the previous year’s RM203.02 million,” he said at the announcement of the income distribution here yesterday.
He said 270,598 unit holders, who currently held 5.49 billion units of AS 1Malaysia, would benefit.
Ahmad Sarji said as at Sept 20, 2011, AS 1Malaysia has recorded gross income of RM405.67 million.
He said profit from the sale of shares contributed RM205.99, or 50.78 per cent, dividend income from investee companies (RM152.48 million, or 37.59 per cent) and investment in short-term instruments and other income (RM47.20 million, or 11.63 per cent).
President/chief executive pfficer, Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman, said so far, 55 per cent of the units had been subscribed and the quota given to the Chinese community has been fully taken up.
“For Bumiputeras and Indians, the units are still not fully subscribed,” he said, adding that the fund offered 10 billion units for subscription at fixed price of RM1 per unit.
“Overall, for this year, AS 1Malaysia yielded 8.6 sen per unit, but we decided to give 6.5 sen income distribution, so we will carry forward 2.1 sen per unit,” he said.
Ahmad Kama Piah said with this 2.1 sen, PNB hoped it would help it bring competitive returns amid the weak global economic outlook.
“We have faced several global economic uncertainties before this. However, we have managed this issue well, and hope to sustain our good portfolio in the future,” he said. — Bernama