Monday February 18, 2013

EPF declares 6.15% dividend for 2012

KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has declared a dividend of 6.15% for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2012 the strongest results in more than a decade.

Its chairman Tan Sri Samsudin Osman said the rate was 15 basis points higher than the 6% paid in 2011.

“It is also a new record for RM27.45bil will be disbursed to EPF members, up 12.20% from RM24.47bil distributed the previous year.

“EPF recorded the highest gross investment income of RM31.02bil in 2012, an increase of 13.91% compared to 2011,” he said.

He said despite the increasingly complex investment environment, the EPF maintained a steady upward momentum to record the strongest results since the early millennium, supported by effectiveness of long-term investment strategy, disciplined and prudent approaches.

In line with the Strategic Asset Allocation practised by EPF, most of its asset investments continued to be confined to low-risk fixed-income and stable instruments.

“While we invested in various investments, they were largely in low-risk fixed-income instruments for which the rate of return on annual investment (ROI) exceeded 6% for three consecutive years.

“Equity generated double-digit ROI of 10.06%, while return from fixed-income instruments exceeded 5.50%, despite current low interest rates,” he said.

Samsudin said EPF investment assets as at Dec 31 last year amounted to RM526.75bil, surpassing half a trillion ringgit and increased 12.31% from RM469.04bil recorded the previous year.

With the increase in its membership, he said EPF needed RM4.46bil to pay every single per cent dividend rate for 2012, an increase of 9.34% from RM4.08bil paid for every one per cent dividend rate in 2011.

The statement said two major transactions made by the EPF in property investment in 2012 were the Battersea Power Station in London and the purchase of 932ha of land from the Rubber Research Institute in Sungai Buloh costing RM2.28bil for the development of a new urban area.

Samsudin said it was a big challenge for the EPF to manage funds of more than half a trillion ringgit in its quest to provide strong returns amid low interest rate environment, continued uncertainty in global economy, and constraints in the domestic capital market. - Bernama

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Monday February 18, 2013

EPF declares 6.15% dividend for 2012