Friday June 13, 2008 MYT 3:18:07 PM

Khazanah Nasional’s net worth investment portfolio RM53.1b

KUALA LUMPUR: Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s net worth of its investment portfolio declined to RM53.1bil as at May 31 this year from RM62.2bil a year ago due to the soft market conditions.

It said in a statement Friday that as at May 31, a total of 88% of Khazanah’s investment portfolio was in Malaysian assets.

However, it said over the four years, its financial performance remained significantly positive despite the current soft market conditions.

Its investment portfolio rose from RM33.3bil in May 2004 to RM53.1bil as at May 31, or an increase of RM19.8bil or 59.5% over the period, translating to a compounded annual growth rate of 12.3%.

“In line with its long-term commitment towards progressive divestment of its holdings, Khazanah has emerged as a net seller during the year under review to May 31, significantly harvesting early investments made over the last four years,” it said.

On the performance of the government-linked companies (GLC) transformation programme – with Khazanah as its secretariat – it said that 40% had been completed.

The transformation was now into the Third Phase of its implementation from 2007 to 2010 while the financial and operational progress had been encouraging.

Khazanah said the aggregate earnings of the 20 GLCs jumped from RM10bil in 2004 to RM19.1bil in 2007, an increase of 91%.

The market capitalisation of these 20 GLCs increased by 58% or RM85bil over the last four years, outperforming the broader 100-stock Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) marginally by 0.7%.