The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has declared a dividend of 6.75 percent for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2014 - the strongest result since the beginning of the new millennium.

 

It is the highest EPF dividend since 1999, when a dividend of 6.84 percent was declared. The dividend for 2013 was 6.35 percent.

In a statement today, EPF said this would involve a payout of RM36.66 billion, compared with RM31.2 billion in 2013.

The country's largest pension fund also recorded RM39.08 billion in gross investment income for 2014, up 11.66 percent from RM35.00 billion in 2013, mainly driven by equities in the domestic and global markets, EPF said.

"Global investments contributed 33 percent towards total income for 2014 despite being only 23 percent of total assets amid uncertainties in both the domestic and global markets," EPF chairperson Samsudin Osman said.

The asset class recorded an investment income of RM22.91 billion, a rise of  17.37 percent compared with RM19.52 billion in 2013, and contributed 58.63 percent to the total gross investment income in 2014.

Loans and bonds contributed RM7.57 billion in income, compared with RM7.51 billion in 2013.

Malaysian Government Securities and equivalents recorded RM6.59 billion in income, up 6.14 per cent over the RM6.21 billion in 2013.

Money Market Instruments posted an income of RM619.65 million.

Real Estate and Infrastructure contributed RM1.39 billion in investment income in 2014, compared with RM1.14 billion the previous year.

As at Dec 31, 2014, the EPF's total investment assets stood at RM636.53 billion, up 7.91 per cent from the RM589.87 billion in 2013.

- Bernama