12 BILLION ASNB UNITS HELD BY SABAHANS

By : MURIB MORPI.

SABAH is the fifth state in the country with the highest number of Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN) investment units, according to Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid.

He said about 12 billion of the Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad’s (ASNB) investment units have been acquired by investors from Sabah, mostly Bumiputeras.

Speaking at the launch of Minggu Amanah Saham Malaysia (MSAM) 2012 here yesterday, Ahmad Sarji said 144 billion units of ASN investment units were now in circulation, with the number of account holders nationwide increasing to 10.85 million individuals.

Out of this figure, he said 9.6 million account holders are Bumiputera and about 1.2 million non-Bumiputera.

On average, he said ASN account owner holds about 13,224.5 investment units each.

“Meanwhile, ASNB’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Amanah Mutual Berhad is managing 4.26 billion units in circulation through 17 funds. The number of account holders is 55,000 with investment value of RM3.72 billion,” he said.

Ahmad Sarji also reported that PNB also holds equity in more than 200 companies that are capable of paying dividends to be distributed among PNB investors.

He said PNB is also in command of properties that could generate a stable and strong long term revenues through real estate investment trust (REITs) worth RM1.33 billion, besides directly owns properties worth RM7.36 billion.

Among these properties are several high value buildings located in the Kuala Lumpur’s “Golden Triangle”, such as the MAS Building, Kenanga International Building, MIDF Tower and several others that are worth RM607.6 million in total.

He added that PNB also owns properties in Australia and London with a combined value of RM4.88 billion.

According to Ahmad Sarji, PNB has distributed a competitive amount of dividends and bonuses, totaling RM91 billion so far.

He said at the moment the non-Bumiputeras have fully subscribed all trust share units allocated to them, amounting to 24.6 billion units.

For the units allocated for Bumiputeras, he said there were still a significant amount available, including 2.84 billion units under the Amanah Saham 1Malaysia.

The ASN 3 Imbang also still has 869.2 million units available and ASN Gemilang has 864.1 million units. (theborneopost)