2.06 billion new ASW 2020 units to be made available

KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Bhd's unit Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd will make available 2.06 billion new units of Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW 2020) for the public to subscribe by Sept 12.

PNB president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah said the offer would commence concurrently at all ASNB offices and 1,400 agents' outlets nationwide by 9.30am.

"To ensure a fair distribution to the investing public, a maximum limit of 20,000 units has been set per account holder during the offer period from Sept 12 to 25,''he said.

Of the new offer, 60 million units have been allocated to the disabled to provide them with a hassle-free transaction.

Hamad said the disabled must produce the Disabled Identification Card issued by the Social Welfare Department when making transactions for either new or additional subscriptions.

ASW 2020 is a fixed priced equity fund open to all Malaysians aged six months and above and is subject to 51:49 bumiputra and non-bumiputra quota. Each unit is priced at RM1.

The fund, which was launched on Aug 28, 1996 with an initial size of three billion units, is the first PNB unit trust fund opened to non-bumiputra subscribers. Since then the fund has been increased five times to 5.68 billion currently, attracting 717,135 account holders.

URL: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?f...46&sec=business

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Better payout for ASN investors
KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB)'s subsidiary Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB) has announced higher income distribution for investors of its Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN) growth fund.

PNB chairman Tan Sri Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said the better payout was due to the healthy performance of the local bourse and promising economic conditions.

"The ASN fund's (good) performance was a result of the Composite Index which touched an all-time high of 1440.39 points on Dec 6," Ahmad Sarji told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.

"The initiatives undertaken by the Government in developing the country's economic growth also contributed positively to the fund," he added.

For its financial year ending Dec 31, ASNB would be making an income distribution of 6.25 sen per unit for its ASN fund, an increase of 0.75 sen per unit compared with the income distribution of 5.5 sen per unit in the previous year.

Ahmad Sarji said the income distribution would involve a total payment of RM86.81mil that would benefit 1.21 million unit holders subscribing to 1.39 billion units of ASN.

"(The income distribution) would be reinvested into additional units of ASN calculated on the Net Asset Value of ASN as at Dec 31 and be automatically credited into the unit holders' accounts," Ahmad Sarji said.

He also said that up until Dec 24, 2007, ASN had grossed 12.33% higher income to RM129.02mil from RM114.86mil in the previous financial year.

Of the total income achieved, profit from the sale of shares accounted for RM75.99mil or 58.9%, followed by dividend income of RM41.67mil or 32.3%, with the remaining RM11.36mil or 8.8% was derived from short-term investment instruments.

Ahmad Sarji added that transactions of ASN at the ASNB offices had been suspended from Wednesday to facilitate calculation of the income distribution.

Transactions would resume on Jan 2, 2008.

URL: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?f...53&sec=business

PNB declares 6.25 sen dividend for ASN fund

KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) subsidiary Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB) has announced a higher income distribution for investors of its Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN) growth fund.

PNB chairman Tan Sri Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said the better payout was due to the healthy performance of the local bourse and promising economic conditions.

"The ASN fund's (good) performance was as a result of the (KL) Composite Index, which touched an all-time high of 1,440.39 points on Dec 6," Ahmad Sarji told a press conference yesterday.

"The initiatives undertaken by the Government in developing the country's economic growth also contributed positively to the fund," he added.

For its financial year ending Dec 31 (FY07), ASNB will be making an income distribution of 6.25 sen per unit for its ASN fund, an increase of 0.75 sen from 5.5 sen per unit in FY06.

Ahmad Sarji said the income distribution would involve a total payment of RM86.81mil to 1.21 million unitholders subscribing for 1.39 billion units of ASN.

"It (the income distribution) will be reinvested into additional ASN units calculated on the net asset value of ASN as at Dec 31 and be automatically credited into the unitholders' accounts," he said, adding that up to Dec 24, ASN had grossed 12.33% higher income to RM129.02mil from RM114.86mil in FY06.

Of the total income achieved, profit from sale of shares accounted for RM75.99mil, or 58.9%, followed by dividend income of RM41.67mil, or 32.3%, with the remaining RM11.36mil, or 8.8%, derived from short-term investment instruments.

Ahmad Sarji added that transactions of ASN at the ASNB offices had been suspended from Wednesday to facilitate calculation of the income distribution. Transactions would resume on Jan 2, he said.

On another note, PNB president and chief executive Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman also commented on the group's foreign investment strategies.

"PNB currently uses its own funds for overseas investment, but we are looking to invest the money from the funds if we feel the returns would be promising," he said.

PNB planned to launch new products in the first quarter next year to cater to more non-bumiputra investors, he added.

URL: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?f...77&sec=business

Saham Amanah Sabah announces 4% dividends

KOTA KINABALU: The New Year has brought some cheer to the 54,285 investors in the once-troubled Saham Amanah Sabah.

The state-operated unit trust company announced a 4% dividend payout after the company chalked up a gross profit of RM24.7mil for 2007, Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman said in a statement.

Musa, who is state Finance Minister, said the SAS would make payments totalling RM17.9 mil to the unit trust holders who had been anxiously looking forward to better returns since SAS shared hovered at around 20sen per unit following the 1997 financial crisis.

He said SAS reaped a gross profit of RM24.7mil with main gains coming from the share market (86.52%) followed by income from dividends at 11.04% and financial market earnings making up the remaining 2.44%.

The Chief Minister said that the good performance of Bursa Malaysia in 2007 was the main reason for the higher dividend payout this year.

"After taking into account the expenses and taxes, the amount of profit that could be distributed to unit trust holders is RM22.9mil," he said, adding that the income distribution would be at a rate of 4%.

The 54,285 investors holding 449.3 million units comprise of 84% individuals, 7,407 holders under the Hardcore Poor Scheme, and 1,231 through bank loans and 46 from corporate sectors.

He said payments would be made through warrants but investors through the hardcore poor scheme would be paid in cash or via the Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) accounts.

"After being in operation for 13 years, this is the ninth time SAS is paying dividends," Musa said, adding that a total RM270.8mil had been paid out so far over the years.

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He said to enable Saham Sabah Berhad to update investor accounts before the payment of dividends, Mayban Trustees Berhad had suspended all SAS transactions for 15 days since Dec 17 and all transactions will resume on Thursday.

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No. 7, Melaka International Trade Centre from Sat 19 April to Mon 28 April 2008.

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URL: http://www.maybank2u.com.my/highlights/msam/index.html

Amanah Saham offers one billion new units

PETALING JAYA: Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), has announced the addition of one billion new units of Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) for subscription from Monday.

With the additional units, the fund size of ASM will increase to 7.2 billion units, according to a statement.

ASM, a fixed price unit trust fund opened to all Malaysians aged six months and above, has a maximum investment limit of 10,000 units per accountholder during the offer period from Dec 1 to Dec 7.

The maximum investment limit will be void after the offer period.

Meanwhile, the 490 million new units of Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 under the non-bumiputra quota were fully subscribed when the additional units were opened for sale yesterday, ASNB said in a statement.

The units - taken up by 70,713 unitholders, comprising 27,479 new accountholders - were snapped up in six hours and 10 minutes.

URL: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?f...84&sec=business

ASM’s new 1b units fully subscribed

KUALA LUMPUR: Amanah Saham Malaysia’s one billion new units were fully subscribed on Thursday; four days after the additional units were opened for sale on Monday.

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ASNB fixed-priced unit trust funds a hit with investors

AMANAH Saham Nasional Bhd’s (ASNB) fixed-priced unit trust funds launched in the past few years have proven to be big winners due to their commendable returns.

These equity-based funds, namely Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW 2020) and Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM), have achieved compounded annual growth rates of 10.78% and 6.3% respectively since the time of its launch.

ASW 2020 and ASM have been providing an annual average distribution income of 7.74 sen and 7.12 sen respectively.

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ASN declares dividend for FY09

KUALA LUMPUR: Unit trust operator Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASN) announced Tuesday an income distribution of 6.25 sen per unit for Amanah Saham Malaysia unit holders.

The dividend announcement was for the financial year ending March 31, 2009 (FY09).

According to Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah, the dividend was the lowest ever declared by ASN.

He said the income distribution was equivalent to RM407.58 million.

PNB is the parent company of ASN.

Hamad said this payment would benefit 402,513 unit holders who have subscribed to 7.21 billion units of ASM.

Commenting on the dividend payout, he said ASN has the capacity to pay 7.92 sen per unit of dividend but chose to retain cash for investment opportunities in the new FY.

On the trends of the local bourse, Hamad said that would depend very much on external factors.

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ASM declares income distribution of 6.25 sen per unit

URL: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?f...98&sec=business

PNB tawar unit baru ASM dan ASW

URL: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/102699