By TK Chua
I believe many investors in Permodalan Nasional Berhad may not be happy with Prime Minister Najib Razak’s announced special bonus to PNB staff during its recent 40th anniversary celebration.
It is PNB’s many investors who provided the funds for PNB to invest. They are the ones who created the jobs for them.
Before this, PNB employees had already enjoyed their “big” annual bonuses (as alluded to in the report). So, why the special RM2,000 bonus again out of nowhere, said to be paid out in May prior to Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
If there is any special occasion to celebrate, I think it is investors who should be rewarded.
Since Wahid Omar took over as the Chairman of PNB in August 2016, I have noticed a precipitated decline in dividends declared to investors.
For ASM, the dividend declared in 2017 was 6.00% compared with 6.60% in 2014 and 2015 and 6.30% in 2016.
As for ASW, the dividend was 6.00% in 2017 compared with 6.6%, 6.4% and 6.3% in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Similarly for AS1M, the dividends declared were on the downward trend, declining from 6.60% in 2014, 6.40% in 2015, and 6.10% in 2016 to 6.00 in 2017%.
Granted that dividends are dependent on performance and market conditions, but why the special bonus and big annual bonus to staff when dividends declared to investors are on the declining trend?
If PNB is comfortable with dishing out bonuses, I am sure it can also show the same generosity to investors. Will there be a special “40th anniversary dividend” for ASM coming up at the end of this month?
After all, EPF has announced a 6.9% dividend recently. I am sure PNB, given its “high performance” staff, should be able to provide a higher dividend than that.
TK Chua is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.