BusinessTimes
Total funds approved for foreign investments to date amounts to US$6 billion, says the Malaysian pension fund
THE Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has received the Finance Ministry's approval to invest another US$2 billion (RM6.36 billion) overseas this year, as it seeks to generate better returns for its members. The pension fund, which has 11.7 million members, has invested US$1.6 billion (RM5.08 billion) in overseas equities so far.
EPF chairman Tan Sri Samsudin Osman said with the latest approval, total funds approved for foreign investments to date amounts to US$6 billion (RM19.08 billion). This is about 5.8 per cent of EPF's total funds of RM319.3 billion as at January 2008.
"In Malaysia, the EPF will be outsourcing an additional RM1 billion to its equity portfolio managers and RM500 million to its fixed income managers.
"The funds will be disbursed sometime in the early second quarter of this year," Samsudin said at the external portfolio managers award ceremony in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Under the equity category, the EPF has allocated RM100 million to Hwang DBS Investment Management Sdn Bhd, CMS Asset Management Sdn Bhd (RM200 million), Pheim Asset Management Sdn Bhd (RM300 million) and Nomura Asset Management Malaysia Sdn Bhd (RM400 million).
In the fixed income segment, it has distributed RM200 million and RM300 million to CIMB Principal Asset Management Sdn Bhd and AmInvestment Management Sdn Bhd respectively.
Samsudin said EPF's assets grew from RM259.9 billion in 2006 to RM285.9 billion in 2007 to realise a dividend of 5.8 per cent..
"EPF's assets are expected to grow to RM346 billion in 2008 and to maintain the same dividend rate we would need to generate realised earnings of RM19.2 billion," he said.
Meanwhile, Nomura Asset was named the best overall equity portfolio manager for 2007. Pheim and CMS were picked as first and second runner-ups respectively. Meanwhile, AmInvestment Management Sdn Bhd won the best overall fixed income portfolio manager.
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