KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Bernama) — Khazanah Nasional Bhd posted a higher profit from operations of RM1.6 billion for its financial year (FY) 2022 compared to RM670 million in the previous year, mainly contributed from monetisation activities and lower impairment in the portfolio.
Managing director Dato’ Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir said despite the challenging market conditions globally, Khazanah delivered a satisfactory performance in the first full year of implementing its refreshed strategy.
“Our nation building mandate of delivering long-term sustainable value remains unchanged and we will ride through the short-term market volatility and remain focused on our long-term goals,” he said in a statement today.
Khazanah declared a dividend of RM500 million for 2022 to the Government of Malaysia, with cumulative dividends declared since 2004 amounting to RM17.1 billion.
Khazanah’s debt increased marginally to RM49.1 billion compared to RM48.5 billion in the previous year, while its realisable asset value (RAV) over debt ratio remained healthy at 2.7 times, on track to achieve the long-term target of between 3.0 and 4.0 times.
Its net asset value (NAV) saw a decline of 5 per cent from RM86 billion in 2021 to RM81billion in 2022 attributed by the global market downtrends.
“There are ongoing concerns that the inflationary environment and tightening monetary conditions will lead to a global recession, exacerbated by continuing geopolitical risks.
However, Khazanah’s disciplined investment approach, as guided by our long-term strategic asset allocation (SAA) and active portfolio management helped navigate the volatility in the markets as we maintained discipline in our value creation and monetisation efforts,” he said.
According to him, Khazanah is focused on building long-term financial return and continued its portfolio rebalancing towards the target SSA with deployments into public equities, private equities and real assets.
Amirul Feisal said the country’s sovereign wealth fund has deployed RM6.6 billion in new investments and raised RM2.5 billion from monetisation of assets. The investment portfolio rolling NAV Time-Weighted Rate of Return (TWRR) recorded a 2.2 per cent in its 4-year rolling TWRR, he said.
On Dana Impak, he said that RM500 million worth of projects have been identified across various impact areas, aiming at building national resilience and new growth opportunities. Key areas include agrifoods and work force digital upskilling as well as a commitment to support entrepreneurs and venture capital (VC) ecosystem.
Meanwhile, Khazanah’s investment in Farm Fresh Bhd (FFB) has not only created wealth but delivered nutrition to Malaysian consumers at a competitive price. He said through its satellite farmer network, FFB has also increased household income, created micro-entrepreneurs and improved wealth of local farmers.
Amirul Feisal also said that in anticipation of another challenging year ahead of below trend global growth on the back of monetary policy shift to combat inflation, and persistent geopolitical tensions, Khazanah will continue to remain vigilant in its investing activities with the aim of maintaining portfolio resilience through diversification.
“Despite the uncertainties, Khazanah remains optimistic in identifying investment opportunities within emerging global trends – structural changes to the multipolar global system and the growing challenges of climate change, energy transition and sustainability.
Khazanah will also continue its quest to seed new growth areas and ecosystems via Dana Impak,” he added.
— Akses Malaysia