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Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman
President & Group CEO of PNB
Permodalan Nasional Bhd April 28, 2009
Dear Tan Sri,
Re: Request to open up unsold units in ASM and ASW to Malaysians after six months
I refer to recent reports that 999 million units of Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) shares allotted to the Chinese have all been sold out, being part of the additional 3.33 billion units of ASM which went on sale last Monday and the additional Amanah Saham Wawasan (ASW) shares which went on sale yesterday.
The performance of both ASM and ASW since their inception had been very impressive, and I understand that the return of both funds is more than double the standard rate of return of a fixed deposit account: 
However, based on recent reports, I understand that the sale of the ASM units allocated to the bumiputeras were not encouraging. Perhaps, this may be due to the existence of other products offered exclusively by Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) to bumiputeras, such as Amanah Saham Nasional, which has a better performance on a year-to-year basis (after taking into account both the dividend and the increase of NAB). 
I fully understand that there is a difference between ASM/ASW and Sekim Amanah Saham Nasional, being an open-end fund and a close-end fund respectively. However, the recent trend after the launch of additional shares in ASM/ASW shows that bumiputeras may rather prefer the structure of Sekim Amanah Saham Nasional. (If I have a choice, I would also like to personally invest in Sekim Amanah Saham Nasional though currently being offered exclusively to bumiputeras).
As such, and with reference to both ASM and ASW, I would like to request PNB to consider opening up any unsold portion of the ASM and ASW shares to all Malaysians (including other future similar products by PNB) if the same continue to remain unsold after the expiry of six (6) months from the launch of sale. This proposal is made:
- to assist and promote, in a more pragmatic approach, the sale of the shares of ASM and ASW and also the performance of both the funds; and
- to ensure that bumiputeras are still afforded the opportunity to purchase ASM and ASW by ensuring there is a six (6) month reservation period
In any event, the opening up of the unsold portion after the expiry of six (6) months from the launch of sale would still permit bumiputeras to purchase the said units. Nevertheless, I fully agree for the limitation of investment to 20,000 units per person (or such other that maybe imposed by PNB) should remain even after the expiry of the six-month period.
Lastly, I would like to congratulate the continuous effort by Tan Sri and the whole team of PNB for being a professional government-linked company, which has grown to be the biggest and one the most successful investment fund companies in Asia.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Tan Keng Liang
Gerakan Youth chief of Kedah
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