KUALA LUMPUR: Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) or the Armed Forces Fund Board is undertaking 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 an allocation in tradeable fixed income instruments.
Meanwhile, the fund has declared a dividend of 2.5% for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2019 (FY19), versus the 2% for FY18.
The improved dividend was declared despite a lower net profit of RM91.7 mil in FY19 compared to RM221 mil for FY18.
Commenting on the results, Mohd Zahidi said 2019 was a difficult year for LTAT as its performance was impacted primarily by the zero dividend from two key subsidiary companies, Boustead Holdings Bhd and Affin Bank Bhd, compared with RM124.2 mil received in FY18.
Investments in these two subsidiaries constitute 47% of its total fund size.
The fund’s results were also affected by the absence of land sales compared with RM87.2 mil recorded in FY18.
LTAT was 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 bil. – May 18, 2020, Bernama
