KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) or the Armed Forces Fund Board is undergoing the implementation of the first phase of its transformation journey to fortify its structure by balancing its ability to deliver short-term wins while ensuring long-term sustainability.
This includes realigning investment strategies with the overall long-term investment objectives and philosophy.
“To this end, our Strategic Asset Allocation Framework, which will set the long-term direction and targets for the portfolio towards improved diversification, is almost complete,” chairman Gen (Rtd) Tan Sri Mohd Zahidi Zainuddin said in a statement.
He said the fund was looking into a potential rebalancing of its portfolio to introduce allocation in tradeable fixed income instruments.
Meanwhile, the fund has declared a dividend of 2.5 per cent for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2019, (FY19), higher than the two per cent recorded in the 2018 financial year (FY18).
The improved dividend was declared on the back of a lower net profit of RM91.7 million in FY19 compared to RM221 million for FY18.
Commenting on the results, Mohd Zahidi said 2019 was a difficult year for LTAT as its performance was impacted primarily as a result of zero dividend received from two key subsidiary companies, Boustead Holdings Bhd and Affin Bank Bhd, compared with RM124.2 million in dividends received in FY18.
Investments in these two subsidiaries constitute 47 per cent of its total fund size.
The fund’s results were also affected by the absence of land sale compared with RM87.2 million recorded in FY18.
LTAT was also able to announce better dividends in FY19 as a result of a waiver of liabilities that were due to the government as it was exempted from paying dividends on the government’s contribution to the fund.
As at Dec 31, 2019, LTAT’s assets under management (AUM) stood at RM9.48 billion. — Bernama
