KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) today declared a dividend rate of 6.35 per cent for the financial year ending Dec 31 2013, representing the biggest ever dividend payout of RM31.2 billion to its members, up 13.66 per cent over the RM27.45 billion paid in 2012.
In a statement, EPF Chairman Tan Sri Samsudin Osman said thanks to the fund’s robust yet prudent investment strategies, its performance has been consistently stable, especially in the past five years.
“Over the years, we have been diversifying our portfolio, thereby spreading out the scope of our assets to manage market risks and generate consistent returns,” he said.
Samsudin said since the global financial crisis in 2008, EPF has declared compounded dividends of more than RM120 billion for its members.
Including the net annual contributions, its investment asset size had recorded a strong rise; from RM342.01 billion in 2008 to RM586.66 billion at the end of 2013.
He said the dividend rate was declared on the back of a record gross investment income of RM35 billion, a 12.81 per cent rise from the RM31.02 billion gross investment income recorded in 2012.
The 2013 dividend payout was derived after deducting the net impairment allowance on financial assets, investment expenses, operating expenditures, statutory charges as well as dividend on withdrawals.
Samsudin noted that as the EPF membership rose to more than 13 million, a total of RM4.91 billion was required to pay every one per cent dividend rate for 2013.
This was 10.06 per cent higher compared with RM4.46 billion paid for every one per cent dividend rate for 2012.
“The amount needed to pay a one per cent dividend would continue to grow between eight and nine per cent annually,” he said.
Samsudin said the investment performance has led the EPF to achieve an annual return on investment (ROI) of 6.97 per cent, a rise of 10 basis points from 2012.
“This is a manifestation of our sound investment principles and diversified portfolio across different markets and sectors,” he said.
Equities emerged as the largest contributor to the EPF’s gross investment income in 2013, generating RM19.52 billion of income, a significant increase of 40.39 per cent compared with RM13.90 billion recorded in 2012.
EPF’s equities portfolio generated double digit realised returns, exceeding the performance of other similar funds.
Loans and Bonds recorded RM7.53 billion of income, a lower amount compared with the previous year, in the absence of significant one-off transactions which had contributed a large portion of returns to the asset class in 2012.
Real Estate and Infrastructure continued to show encouraging performance in 2013, earning RM1.14 billion, a jump of 87.91 per cent over RM606.05 million in 2012.
The year under review also witnessed the investments in Malaysian Government Securities and Equivalents continue to be a key income contributor, achieving an income of RM6.19 billion, while Money Market Instruments recorded RM627.86 million.
The 2013 dividend can be viewed on the EPF’s Facebook page at Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja, Twitter at KWSPBuzz and on YouTube.
EPF account statement for the crediting of the 2013 dividend is now available online via i-Akaun at myEPF website (www.kwsp.gov.my).
Alternatively, members can obtain their EPF account statement from EPF Kiosks or any nearest EPF branch, starting tomorrow.
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