KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) will continue efforts at creating greater access to private market investments this year for better returns, Chief Executive Officer Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan said.
He said among the focus is infrastructure, property and private equities.
“We feel that (the private market) will provide us with better inflation returns, which is always a core target of the EPF,” he told a media briefing on the 2016 dividend yesterday.
The EPF last Saturday declared a 5.7 per cent dividend for 2016, with the total payout amounting to RM37.08 billion.
The dividend is lower than the 6.4 per cent announced for 2015.
Shahril Ridza said that previously, the fund had focused on the highway, infrastructure and energy sectors.
On Simpanan Shariah, he said the savings scheme is expected to attract more depositors, once the maiden dividend is announced next year.
“It has at present RM59 billion in savings and this is in line with our target.
“Initially, we expected the take-up to be around RM60 billion to RM80 billion.
But, we allocated up to RM100 billion in case demand exceeded this expectation,” he added.
On overseas investments, Shahril Ridza said it made up 29 per cent of total investment assets, up from 27 per cent in 2015.
He said the increase is in line with the target of having 30 per cent overseas investment assets.
Meanwhile, the lower 2016 dividend was also due to higher impairment as a result of Bursa Malaysia’s weaker performance. — Bernama