PNB: Too early to tell Sime's impact on funds

IT IS still too early to say if the Sime Darby Bhd fiasco will affect income distributions for the Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) or the Amanah Saham Wawasan (ASW) 2020 for this year.

"It's too early to speculate," Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) chief executive officer Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman told a press conference after announcing the income distribution for the Amanah Saham Didik (ASD) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

On May 13, Sime Darby reported that it had suffered huge losses of some RM1 billion from several energy and utility projects.

However, the conglomerate expects to be profitable for the full year to June 30 2010 and it also has shareholders' equity of about RM21 billion as at March 31.
The group is controlled by PNB and its various unit trust funds like ASB and ASW 2020.

Hamad Kama Piah explained that PNB, the nation's biggest fund management company, has always practised the safe approach of not paying all of its income at one go in a year.

It will keep a portion for the coming year and this helps smoothen distributions every year and prevent any big swings.

On the ASD income distribution, the payout is 6.35 sen per unit for the financial year ending June 30 2010, up 0.05 sen from last year.

"We can actually pay out an income distribution of 9.36 sen, but we are bringing forward 3 sen and keeping it as reserves for next year's income distribution," Hamad Kama Piah said.

The ASD income distribution involved a total payment of RM207.75 million, one-third higher than last year's RM155.59 million.

Up until June 11, ASD recorded a gross income of RM258.33 million. Dividend income made up 34.5 per cent, or RM89.09 million, of the total.

More than half of the total, or 58 per cent, came from the sale of shares, while the rest was from investments in short-term instruments.

The income distribution will benefit 293,504 unitholders, who collectively own 3.59 billion units of ASD.

The calculation of the income distribution was based on the average monthly minimum balance held throughout the ASD financial year.

All transactions for the ASD will be suspended from June 23 to 30. Unitholders can update their accounts nationwide beginning July 1.


By June Ramlee