This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 31, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The ministry of finance (MoF) said there had been no real loss suffered by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), despite news that the latter saw a decline of some RM6 billion in investment value in 10 public listed companies, a month after the 14th general election (GE14) that saw a change in government.

“There has been no real loss suffered by the EPF after the new government [took over the administration], apart from the fluctuations caused in the stock market which were unrealised paper gains or losses,” it said in written response dated July 26 to Pendang member of parliament Awang Hashim.

The ministry said the news had not directly affected the distribution of the EPF’s annual dividend as it is the EPF’s principle to declare dividends from net and real profit.

“Note that the current value of shares is still higher than the book value (original purchase price) of all of the EPF’s domestic equity portfolio,” it added.

The Edge Malaysia weekly reported in its June 11 to June 17 issue that the top 10 worst performing stocks in the EPF’s portfolio post-GE14 were Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd, Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd, IJM Corp Bhd, Gamuda Bhd, Telekom Malaysia Bhd, Axiata Group Bhd, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, Malayan Banking Bhd and Genting Plantations Bhd.

The weekly said the EPF’s investment value in the 10 companies dropped 12% a month after GE14, from RM51.21 billion to RM45.12 billion.

Awang had wanted to know whether it was true that the EPF suffered losses of over RM6 billion after Pakatan Harapan took over the administration from Barisan Nasional.