ASNB declares income disitribution for 5 funds

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KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Bhd’s (PNB) wholly-owned unit trust company, Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB), has declared the income distribution for five of its funds for the financial year ending March 31, 2020.

The five funds are Amanah Saham Bumiputera 2 (ASB 2) and Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM), which are fixed price funds, and ASN Equity 3, ASN Imbang 2 and ASN Sara 1, which are variable price funds.

“ASB 2 and ASM have exceeded the Maybank 12-Month Fixed Deposit benchmark, where the annual total returns for the funds were recorded at 4.75 and 4.25 per cent distribution rate respectively,” said PNB, comparing the figures with the 2.60 per cent returns recorded by Maybank’s12-Month Fixed Deposit.

In a statement today, it said the payout per unit in income distribution is 4.75 sen to the 439,543 unit holders for ASB 2 and 4.25 sen to the 553,188 unit holders for ASM.

The total payout for the two funds amounted to almost RM1.4 billion, it said.

As at Feb 29, 2020, PNB said ASB 2 recorded a net realised income of RM413.30 million, whilst ASM recorded a net realised income of RM646.70 million.

“ASNB also declared an income distribution per unit of 3.25 sen to 89,327 unit holders for ASN Equity 3; 3.50 sen to 86,426 unit holders for ASN Imbang 2; and 4.55 sen to 69,872 unit holders for ASN Sara 1, with a total payout for the three funds amounting to RM228.7 million.

“The total returns of the three funds are benchmarked against the FBM 100 and Maybank 12-Month Fixed Deposit, at a ratio customised to each fund,” PNB said.

It said the income distributions were derived from the funds’ realised gains, dividends and other income.

“In line with its target benchmarks, PNB has always maintained a prudent asset allocation strategy and its significant exposure in the public markets provides PNB with a degree of investment liquidity to deliver sustainable returns to the unit holders.

“Despite a challenging year in 2019, PNB’s funds’ portfolios have held up in relative terms, outperforming their respective benchmarks largely due to the exposure in high-quality stocks with strong fundamentals and the steps taken to diversify the portfolio further,” it said.

Given current unprecedented conditions, PNB cautioned that investors would continue to see companies facing earnings pressure, which will not only be confined to the Malaysian market, but globally as well.

While the economic impact from current events will be widely felt, it said as an investor with a longer-term horizon, the expectation is for the market to recover over the medium and longer run, after establishing a new normal.

“In adapting to these changes, PNB is focused on tapping into the prospects offered by market mispricing to ensure that it will be able to ride through this volatility,” it added. – Bernama