7.00 SEN PER UNIT FOR ASD INCOME DISTRIBUTION
20 JUNE 20008

KUALA LUMPUR :- Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad (ASNB), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) has announced an income distribution of 7.00 sen per unit for Amanah Saham Didik (ASD) for the financial year end June 30, 2008, equal to the rate announced last year.

The income distribution will involve a total payment of RM136.30 million, an increase of RM28.83 million from the total payment of RM107.47 million in 2007. The income distribution will benefit a total of 169,844 unit holders who collectively owned 2.18 billion units of ASD. 

The income distribution will be re-invested into additional units of ASD which will be automatically credited into the unit holders’ accounts.

All transactions for ASD at the ASNB offices and agents will be suspended from June 26, 2008 to June 30, 2008 for the calculation of income distribution for the financial year end. Transaction will resume on July 1, 2008.

Up until June 10, 2008, ASD has recorded a gross income of RM184.51 million compared to RM190.93 million recorded for the financial year end June 30, 2007.

Of the amount, profit from the sale of investment contributed RM96.68 million or 52.40 percent, dividend income from investee companies contributed RM64.22 million or 34.80 percent while the remaining income of RM23.61 million or 12.80 percent is derived from investments in short term instruments.

As at June 10, 2008, ASD has a portfolio of investments in the services and trading sectors amounting to 53.94 percent, 9.75 percent in infrastructure, 8.19 percent in construction, 8.03 percent in consumer products and other sectors amounting to 20.09 percent.

The accumulated profit brought forward will increase to RM80.70 million, up RM16.06 million compared to RM64.64 million in 2007. The accumulated profit brought forward will be reinvested into potential investment instruments to generate further income for the fund.

ASD has received an overwhelming response from investors ever since the fund was launched in 2001 with an initial fund size of 300 million. Since then, the fund size has been increased six times.
The first increase was in 2002 with 200 million units, followed by 2004 with 200 million units and 2005 with 500 million units. In 2004 and 2005, the additional units of ASD were fully subscribed within three months. In 2006, ASD had announced another 300 million additional units which was fully subscribed in less than two months. Last year ASD announced two additional launches, 200 million units in July which was fully subscribed in less than 4 months and another 300 million units in November, 2007.

ASD is a fixed priced unit trust fund opened to Bumiputera investors as early as 6 months old. Investors can also invest in the ASD using the EPF withdrawal scheme.