EPF's 2022 gross investment income stands at RM55.33 billion, down from nearly RM69 billion in 2021

KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) posted a lower total gross investment income of RM55.33 billion, down from RM68.89 billion in 2021.

The country's largest pension fund attributed this to high market volatility and lower valuations across equity and fixed-income markets.

EPF chief executive officer Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said despite the persistent global market downturn in 2022, the fund's investment portfolio maintained its resilience and responded with minimal impact.

This was largely due to its overarching strategy that emphasised long-term sustainability of investments and returns, in line with the fund's strategic asset allocation, he said at a briefing on EPF performance in 2022 and dividend announcement here today.

Amir said EPF's well-diversified portfolio and healthy liquidity helped to reduce risk and enabled the fund to maintain investment assets at above RM1 trillion and deliver respectable dividend rates for 2022.

The equities asset class contributed RM30.54 billion, or 55 per cent of EPF's total gross income, lower compared with the RM41.06 billion recorded in 2021.

Foreign-listed equities, which yielded a return on investment (ROI) of 9.27 per cent continued to be the driver of returns for this asset class.

The private equity portfolio also demonstrated strong performance, recording a ROl of 13.65 per cent.

This portfolio generated lower gross investment income compared with 2021, largely due to lower valuations of the underlying assets, apart from lower distributions received for the year.

To ensure long-term portfolio health, EPF said it had taken the prudent measure of writing down RM3.43 billion of its listed equity portfolio in 2022, which was higher than the RM1.15 billion write-down recorded in 2021, in line with the volatility in the equity markets.

Seventy-four per cent of the total amount came from syariah-compliant counters that underperformed, which in turn impacted the Simpanan Syariah performance for the year.

With almost half of the fund's total asset allocation in fixed-income instruments, comprising Malaysian Government Securities and equivalent, as well as loans and bonds, the retirement fund was able to maintain steady returns.

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