KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) has come out to defend itself and deny a recent Bloomberg report that it was offering exchangeable bond sales for its overseas investments.
In a statement released today, PNB said it was continuously assessing various means and methods to raise capital for its domestic and global investment activities, including debt instruments such as term loans, sukuk and exchangeable bonds.
“However, for clarity purposes, to date, the PNB Board of Directors has not approved nor considered any exchangeable bond programme to be issued by PNB,” said the country’s biggest state-owned fund manager.
“We wish to further highlight that such existing or future borrowings, if undertaken, applied and will only apply to PNB’s proprietary portfolio and do not involve its unit trust funds which are segregated and distinct from the proprietary fund of PNB, the Company,” it said.
It said the operations and investments of the unit trust funds such as Amanah Saham Bumiputera and Amanah Saham Nasional are strictly regulated by the Securities Commission (SC) and under the rules of the SC, no unit trust fund manager, including PNB, is allowed to undertake any borrowings for the funds or encumber the assets under these funds for any purpose.
“Accordingly any speculation on this matter is unnecessary and concerns regarding the charging of our unit trust assets are unfounded.
“We wish to state that as the custodian to the wealth of millions of Malaysians, PNB is always guided by its mandate in all of the investment decisions that we make and committed to the highest standards of probity and integrity,” it said.
Yesterday, in an article titled “Biggest Malaysia State Fund Weighs Debut Exchangeable Bond Sale”, Bloomberg reported that PNB, which owns more than 10 per cent of the local stock market, is considering its first sale of exchangeable bonds as it seeks to raise funds for overseas investments.
It cited a PNB representative saying that PNB is exploring all options including an offering of exchangeable bonds, or notes backed by shares in a listed company and cited other sources that PNB recently asked investment banks to submit proposals for the potential deal.
“The asset manager hasn’t made a final decision about what the underlying stock would be, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private,” it quoted.
PNB holds a 48 per cent stake in Malayan Banking Bhd, the country’s biggest lender, valued at more than US$12 billion (RM48.6 billion) based yesterday’s close, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
PNB also owned about 18 per cent of Axiata Group Bhd., the US$9.4 billion wireless carrier, at the end of 2017. Other major holdings include stakes in Sapura Energy Bhd., Sime Darby Bhd. and Tenaga Nasional Bhd., according to its website.
