Amanah Saham Malaysia unitholders get 6.5 sen dividend for financial year ending March 31, 2012

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KUALA LUMPUR: Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), has announced a 6.50 sen dividend per unit for Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) for the financial year ending March 31, 2012.

The income distribution was higher than the 6.38 sen per unit paid last year, PNB chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said yesterday.

He said the income distribution would involve a total payout of RM820.24 million, an increase of 8.6 percent compared to the RM755.05 million paid out last year.

“The payment will benefit 546,341 unit holders who currently hold 12.62 billion units of ASM,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

Up until March 21, ASM has recorded a gross income of RM978.32 million.

Dividend income from investment in companies contributed RM774.77 million or 79.2 of the gross income.

Profit from the sale of shares contributed RM53.59 million or 5.5 percent, and the remaining income of RM149.96 million or 15.3 percent was derived from investments in short term instruments.

The income distribution will be reinvested in additional units and will be automatically credited into the unitholders’ account on April 1, 2012.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Sarji also announced higher rates of income distribution for all the three funds under Amanah Saham Gemilang (ASG) – ASG-Pendidikan, ASG-Persaraan and ASG-Kesihatan – for the financial year ending March 31, 2012.

ASG-Pendidikan unitholders will receive seven sen per unit, ASG-Persaraan 7.05 sen per unit and ASG-Kesihatan 7.10 sen per unit.

“The rate announced is much higher than last year, each at a rate of 5.6 sen per unit, 5.10 sen per unit and 6.10 sen per unit,” Ahmad Sarji said.

ASNB has allocated a total payment of RM3.6 million for ASG-Pendidikan income distribution which will benefit a total of 15,262 unit holders who have subscribed to 52.07 million units of the fund.

For ASG-Persaraan, RM1.49 million has been allocated which will benefit 2,909 unitholders who have subscribed to 21.20 million units, while RM4.57 million has been allocated to 9,675 unitholders subscribing to 64.42 million ASG-Pendidikan units.

ASM and ASG transactions were suspended from yesterday until April 1.

Commenting on the performance of these funds, PNB President/Group Chief Executive Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman said they had the capacity to pay 14.0 sen for ASG-Kesihatan, 10.0 sen for ASG-Pendidikan, 12.2 sen for ASG-Persaraan dan 8.0 sen untuk ASM but “we decided on the current income distributions due to unfavourable environments”.

He said PNB would continue to ensure that its strategy in stock selection give competitive annual returns for the long term. — Bernama