惭补濒补测蝉颈补鈥檚&苍产蝉辫;Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has increased its overseas investments to one-fifth of the fund鈥檚 total assets and rebalanced its portfolio, cutting its holdings of bonds and boosting its allocation in real estate, infrastructure and private equity.
The $180bn (鈧�130bn) retirement fund said its annual return on investment (ROI) reached 6.97%, last year helped by 鈥渁n increasingly globally diversified portfolio鈥�. In 2012, ROI was 6.87%.
Investments abroad accounted for 21% of total assets in 2013, compared with 17% a year ago, according to its annual report.
鈥淥ver the last few years, we have begun to focus on real estate and infrastructure investments that meet our risk/reward criteria while also progressively stepping up our participation in the private equity space,鈥� the EPF said.
The fund said it allocated an additional 1bnMYR (鈧�221m) to external fund managers last year. With the added funds, total book value of its assets with external fund managers reached 72.5bnMYR, or 13.46% of the total, up from 56.3bn in 2012. Last year total assets increased by 11.4%.
鈥淥ur global exposures are also beneficial during periods of ringgit weakness as they provide a buffer to our earnings,鈥� the EPF said.
鈥淥n the regional and global fronts, the financial landscape is anticipated to take an interesting turn, though possibly fraught with challenges.鈥�
The fund added that rising bond yields caused by the gradual withdrawal of the US quantitative easing programme will impact the domestic bond market. More than 40% of Malaysian government securities are held by foreign participants.
