The PNB Portfolio conundrum
PNB CEO, Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad had a briefing in which he lamented the poor performance of the Bursa Malaysia last year.
He said that Bursa Malaysia had not been performing since the 2014 high.
He advocated a whole of nation approach to solving the issue.
He suggested that regulators need to adopt stronger approaches to reinvigorate the performance.
His concern is understandable because PNB is a big investor in the local market.
The performance of PNB’s funds has been trending down in recent years.
The historical distributions for the Fixed Price Funds from 2015 to 2024 are tabulated below:
| Fund Name | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) | 7.75 | 7.25 | 7.25 ^a | 7.00 | 5.50 | 4.25 ^b | 5.00 | 4.60 ^c | 5.25 | 5.75 |
| ASB 2 | 7.75 | 7.05 | 6.50 | 6.75 | 6.00 | 4.75 | 4.25 | 4.30 | 5.00 | 5.25 |
| ASB 3 Didik (formerly ASD) | 6.60 | 6.30 | 6.00 | 6.25 | 5.25 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 5.00 | 5.25 |
| Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) | 6.60 | 6.30 | 6.00 | 6.25 | 4.50 | 4.25 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 4.50 | 4.75 |
| ASM 2 Wawasan (formerly ASW 2020) | 6.40 | 6.30 | 6.00 | 6.00 | 5.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 3.75 | 4.50 | 4.75 |
| ASM 3 (formerly AS 1Malaysia) | 6.40 | 6.10 | 6.00 | 6.00 | 5.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 3.75 | 4.50 | 4.75 |
Special Bonus Notes for ASB:
- ^a 2017: An additional 1.00 sen special bonus was declared.
- ^b 2020: An additional 0.75 sen special “Ehsan” payment was declared for the first 30,000 units.
- ^c 2022: An additional 0.50 sen special bonus was declared for the first 30,000 units.
And it is his job to improve the funds’ performance.
But if we were to look at PNB’s portfolio, there are some companies that have outperform the fund in terms of yield.
And since the beginning of 2026, the market capitalization for some banking stocks have improved. Look at Maybank and CIMB Bank’s market capitalization.
And in terms of yield, Bank Islam, MBSB Berhad and RHB Bank have held their own.
No doubt, there have been some laggards but the banking positions have been the reliable defender of PNB’s portfolio.
But, the CEO is right.
Other companies in the portfolio need to buck up.
If you are an individual investor, you can take matters in your own hands by investing in the performing companies directly.
You would get better returns while waiting for PNB to improve other companies in their stable.
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