Early August this year, group executive chairman of Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd was keen to acquire stakes in Plus Malaysia Bhd (PLUS), which is co-owned by EPF and UEM Group, where the latter is a wholly-owned subsidiary by Khazanah Nasional Bhd. The news may have begun to spark concerns among investors, worrying the possible disposable of stakes in PLUS may have severe impact on their dividends on EPF savings. In this article, we will look into some of the facts and figures regarding Plus Malaysia Bhd in EPF’s portfolio.

Modest Impact on Dividend Payouts

To give investors a context of EPF’s 49% holdings in PLUS, PLUS is one of the holdings under EPF’s Investment Associates Portfolio, sitting with a total net assets value of RM 225,561,000. In 2016, PLUS has generated about RM 352,800,000 worth of dividends to EPF. While the amount may be significant in absolute terms, it constitutes less than 4.2% of the EPF’s dividend from investments, and less than 1% of the 5.70% dividends payout to contributors in 2016.

Table 1: Data extracted from EPF 2016 Annual Report.

Having that said, we opine that one should not leap into conclusions based on the news headlines without examining the underlying facts and figures. Given EPF’s well diversified holdings, spanning more than thousands of assets across various industries and countries, we believe a particular asset disposal is unlikely to have a significant impact on EPF’s return or dividend payout. At this juncture, while EPF has not receive any paper documents for the deal, we believe EPF’s investment decision will always be in the best interest of contributors.

Disclaimer: The analysis above is subjected to personal opinion and does not express views from any party. We do not take responsibility for any of the investment decisions or actions taken based on the article above. 

http://www.en.bullbearbursa.com/2017/09/26/are-you-worried-about-epfs-plus-stake/