ADVERTISEMENT

Malaysia’s $30 Billion Pension Fund Goes Long as Rate-Cut Hedge

Malaysia’s $30 Billion Pension Fund Goes Long as Rate-Cut Hedge

(Bloomberg) -- Malaysia’s second-largest pension fund expects lower returns this year and plans to buy more bonds with maturities of 10 years or more to hedge against further interest-rate cuts.

Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan), which manages about 120 billion ringgit ($30 billion), is also considering lowering its 5 percent minimum return target because of recently increased uncertainty in global markets, said Chief Executive Officer Wan Kamaruzaman Wan Ahmad. The fund achieved a 6.15 percent gross return on investment in 2014, he said.

Malaysia’s central bank unexpectedly reduced the overnight policy rate Wednesday for the first time in seven years, trimming the amount financial institutions pay to borrow from each other by 25 basis points to 3 percent. Policy makers joined Asian counterparts from Indonesia to Taiwan in acting to spur investment and economic growth.

“It’s never been so difficult for an institutional investor to get these kinds of returns, but to me this is the new norm,” Wan Kamaruzaman said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday. “This low interest-rate environment, low corporate returns, lower dividend yields will prevail for a much longer period.”

‘Double-Edged Sword’

Malaysia’s interest-rate cut is a “double-edged sword” as the fund’s existing portfolio is “in the money,” while new investments will probably be in instruments with lower returns, the CEO said. KWAP will be buying longer-dated bonds because “we see room for a further interest rate cut,” he said.

KWAP bought 30-year Malaysian government bonds at a yield of 4.613 percent on June 29, days after the U.K. voted to leave the European Union, Wan Kamaruzaman said. The debt was quoted at 4.51 percent Friday, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. 

KWAP has been able to maintain returns of about 5 percent so far this year in part because it focuses on Malaysian securities rather than investments in other countries where yields are lower, he said. The yield on the 10-year Malaysian government bond was 3.54 percent Friday, compared with 1.54 percent for U.S. Treasuries with the same tenor and negative yields in Germany and Japan, Bloomberg-compiled data show.

Wan Kamaruzaman said the fund will likely keep its roughly 2 percent allocation to U.K. assets, despite the results of the referendum, because it adds diversification to the portfolio. KWAP, which agreed to sell its 88 Wood Street property in London for 270 million pounds ($363 million) in March, owns two other locations in the city. 

Malaysia’s $30 Billion Pension Fund Goes Long as Rate-Cut Hedge

It purchased the 10 Gresham Street office building, which had a unit of Lloyds Banking Group Plc as its anchor tenant, in 2012 for 200 million pounds, according to its website. KWAP bought about 80 percent interest in the 440,000-square-foot Intu Uxbridge shopping center in 2014 for 174.8 million pounds, the website shows.

London’s property market could face a “steep correction” after prices surged in recent times, Wan Kamaruzaman said. KWAP also has about 200 million pounds in equity investments in the U.K., he said.

“You need to treat Brexit with caution,” he said. “The trouble is that the London market has always been at the forefront before, but the correction this time round could be deeper because of the impact on globalization.”

‘Not Sentimental’

KWAP may sell the Sydney building that houses the Australian stock exchange. The fund bought the 14-story property at 20 Bridge Street in 2011 for A$185 million ($141 million), its website shows.

“We have expression of interest from both Australian and global players, if the price is right, we will sell,” Wan Kamaruzaman said. “Even though we are under-invested globally, we are not sentimental about investments.”

KWAP receives an average of about 4 billion ringgit annually in pension contributions, Wan Kamaruzaman said. It reported gross investment income of 6.47 billion ringgit in 2014, with the largest contribution coming from equities at 39 percent of the total, according to its website. Loans and private debt provided 23 percent of income, while Malaysian government securities made up 17 percent, the website shows.

The fund allocated 54 percent to fixed income, 36 percent to equities and the remaining 10 percent to other investments, including real estate, at the end of 2014, according to the website. Overseas investments currently account for 15 percent of total assets, while the fund has a mandate to invest as much as 19 percent abroad, Wan Kamaruzaman said.

The fund’s 2015 results will likely be released in August, pending clearance from the parliament, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elffie Chew in Kuala Lumpur at echew16@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, Timothy Sifert, Garfield Reynolds