ASN Announces Lower Income Distribution Of 6.30 Sen Per Unit For ASD

Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd today announced a lower income distribution of 6.30 sen per unit for its Amanah Saham Didik (ASD) for the financial year ending June 30, 2009.

Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) chairman, Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said the income distribution would involve a total payment of RM156.82 million.

It will benefit 224,729 unit holders who collectively own 2.83 billion units of ASD.

Announcing the income distribution here, Ahmad Sarji said it had been a challenging year due to the global investment environment, which was severely affected by the financial crisis.

"Our prudent financial strategy has however enabled the ASD to provide competitive returns for its unit holders," he told a press conference here today.

As of June 19, ASD recorded a gross income of RM185.94 million.

Of this amount, the profit from the sale of investments contributed RM80.26 million or 43.16 percent while dividend income from investees contributed RM88.68 million with the remaining income of RM17 million, derived from investments in short term instruments.

Commenting on the lower income distribution, PNB president and group chief executive Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman said as the fund manager, it had the capacity to pay up to 9.7 sen.

He added that the declared income distribution is however reasonable due to the uncertain economic conditions.

For the financial year ended June 30, 2008, ASNB declared a seven sen per unit distribution for unit holders of the ASD.

PNB owns Amanah Saham Nasional, the manager of the ASD.

All transactions for ASD at the ASNB offices and its agents will be suspended from June 24-30 to facilitate the calculation of income distribution.

Meanwhile, on the additional Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) units offered recently, Hamad Kama said the Indian quota of 500 million units had almost been taken up.

"About 485 million units have been taken up so far. Besides that, 145 million units are available for other races," he added.

In April, the fund manager offered 3.33 billion new units of ASM and two billion Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 units.