THE Employees Provident Fund (EPF) yesterday announced a 66 per cent year-on-year income growth for its loans and bonds portfolio to RM3.06 billion for the third quarter ended September 30 2012 vis-a-vis RM1.85 billion in the same period last year.
Income from investments for the quarter meanwhile went up 3.24 per cent to RM7.02 billion from over RM6.8 billion last year.
Chief executive officer Tan Sri Azlan Zainol said loans and bonds generated exceptional one-off returns due to a number of tactical capital market transactions, thus outperforming other portfolios during the same period.
"Given the continuing uncertainty in the economy and the low interest rate environment, it will be tough to sustain current investment performance in the quarters to come.
"Nonetheless, EPF continues to maintain a robust risk management framework with tactical investment strategies in place to ensure that it does not only preserve, but enhance the value of members' retirement funds," he added.
In a statement, the fund said returns from Malaysian Government Securities for the quarter registered RM1.54 billion was down by 0.6 per cent from last year, while equities posted RM2.34 billion in income compared with RM3.18 billion previously.
Properties and money market instruments contributed RM54.62 million and RM23.85 million respectively in income.
As of the third quarter, EPF's total overseas exposure constituted 16.83 per cent of its total investment cost, whereby during the quarter, an additional US$2.27 billion (RM6.95 billion) of investments were made in global equities, global sukuks and real estate.
"One of our major investment transactions for the quarter includes the RM2.28 billion 942.92ha of prime Rubber Research Institute land in Sungai Buloh," EPF said.
The fund also teamed up with SP Setia and Sime Darby to acquire STG400 million (RM1.9 billion) Battersea Power Station project in London as part of its diversification strategy.
As at September 30 2012, EPF's investment assets increased by RM58.30 billion to RM510.11 billion, whereby total contributions received amounted to RM12 billion, compared with RM8.47 billion in total withdrawals, resulting in RM3.53 billion net inflow of funds. Bernama
This post has been edited by kueyteowlou: Dec 14 2012, 12:50 PM