This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 31, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Bhd’s (PNB) wholly-owned unit trust company, Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB), has declared income distribution for five funds, two of which are its fixed income funds — Amanah Saham Bumiputera 2 (ASB2) and Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) — for the financial period ending March 31, 2020.

ASB2 unitholders will get an income distribution per unit of 4.75 sen, while ASM unitholders will get 4.25 sen. The total income distribution payout for the two fixed price funds amounts to almost RM1.4 billion, PNB said in a statement yesterday. As at Feb 29, ASB2 recorded a net realised income of RM413.3 million, while ASM had a net realised income of RM646.7 million.

The other three funds it declared income distribution for are variable price funds ASN Equity 3, ASN Imbang 2 and ASN Sara 1.

ASN Equity 3 unitholders will get an income distribution per unit of 3.25 sen, while ASN Imbang 2 unitholders will get 3.5 sen, and ASN Sara 1 will get 4.55 sen. The total payout for these three funds amount to RM228.7 million. “The total returns of the three funds are benchmarked against the FBM 100 and Maybank’s 12-month fixed deposit, at a ratio customised to each fund,” ASNB explained.

It further said that the income distributions declared by these funds are derived from the funds’ realised gains, dividends and other income.

“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,” PNB said.

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

“While the economic impact from current events will be widely felt, 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 the market mispricing, to ensure that it will be able to ride through this volatility,” it added.