PUTRAJAYA: Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) today announced a hibah (dividend) of 1.25 per cent, which amounts to a payout of RM913 million to its depositors for the 2018 financial year.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Dr Mujahid Yusof said the restructuring plan that had been implemented proved the government's commitment to rescue TH in the interest of its 9.3 million depositors.
He was speaking at a TH briefing here today on its performance and to announce the hibah for 2018.
He said TH recorded an asset surplus of RM1 billion for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2018.
“This demonstrates that its financial position has recovered compared with the deficit of RM4.1 billion incurred according to the audited financial report for 2017,” he said.
As at Dec 31, 2018, TH recorded total assets of RM76.5 billion, higher than the total liabilities of RM75.5 billion, the minister said.
For comparison, as at Dec 31, 2017, the pilgrim fund's accounts showed total assets of RM70.3 billion, with total liabilities amounting to RM74.4 billion.
Mujahid said in 2018, TH registered revenue of RM4.2 billion and an attributable profit of RM2 billion.
“Despite the restructuring, TH still recorded impairment losses of RM1.5 billion, a large part of which should have been recognised in the previous financial year. As a result, it reduced TH's attributable profit for 2018,” he said.
Meantime, the minister said the government had shown its commitment to provide RM500 million in 2020 and RM1.73 billion annually thereafter until all the sukuk (Islamic bonds) were redeemed.
He said the total amount provided by the government over 10 years was estimated at RM17.8 billion.
“This (exercise) is the result of the previous administration's weakness and abuse of power, whereby the manipulation of accounts led to a high hibah rate being declared despite the widening deficit gap,” he said.
Meanwhile, TH group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said the hibah declared today was the lowest in history but he expressed confidence that TH's financial position would recover further in the coming year.
“However, keep in mind that TH's priority is to facilitate the country's pilgrims in performing the hajj. If we managed to make a profit, it's okay (but) we cannot compare TH with the fund managers,” he said.
He attributed the success in turning around TH within a short period of six months to the government's full support in the TH restructuring exercise to restore its balance sheet.
"The government is committed now by providing a grant to the special purpose vehicle (SPV) (in charge of rehabilitating TH's underperforming assets) to redeem the bonds every year -- RM500 million in 2020, then for 10 years after that RM1.73 billion (annually).
"This will make sure that TH holds the sukuk issued by the SPV known as Urusharta Jemaah Sdn Bhd (UJSB) and we know the SPV can pay now because of the government's commitment," he said.
Asked whether this represented a government bailout, Zukri said: “Yes, this is the government's plan to rescue TH.”
On why the fund injection was not mentioned earlier when TH announced its restructuring plan or completed the asset transfer to Urusharta Jemaah, he explained that TH was following the MFRS 9 accounting standard adopted on Dec 31, 2018.
TH has completed the transfer of all assets that had experienced a drop in value and were underperforming to Urusharta Jemaah.
“These assets with a book value of RM9.7 billion have been transferred to Urusharta Jemaah for RM19.9 billion to enable the closing of the RM10.9 billion deficit gap.
“The transfer will be in exchange for RM19.6 billion in sukuk and RM300 million in cash. The transaction will allow TH to achieve two objectives: closing the deposit gap and reviving its financial position,” he said.
Depositors can check their accounts for the hibah crediting from April 8. -- Bernama