KUALA LUMPUR (July 31): The Retirement Fund Inc, better known as KWAP, reported on Wednesday that its net income jumped nearly 37 times for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2023 (FY2023).
Net income totalled RM9.7 billion — the second highest since its inception in 2007 — compared to RM263 million booked in FY2022, the fund said in a statement. Total fund investment return stood at 8.2% for the year.
“KWAP’s notable performance in 2023 builds on our strong track record in meeting both our financial and social objectives,” said chief executive officer Datuk Nik Amlizan Mohamed. “These results validate the effectiveness of our investment model to generate sustainable returns for our stakeholders.”
In terms of asset classes and by time weighted rate of return, KWAP’s public equity investments recorded 11.0%, private equity delivered 7.9%, and fixed income achieved 6.2%. The infrastructure portfolio, meanwhile, delivered a 5.2% return, and the real estate portfolio, 3.5%.
Low base of comparison effect also magnified the huge jump in net income for 2023, as 2022 was “such a challenging year; not just for Malaysia, but also globally,” said KWAP chief investment officer Hazman Hilmi Sallahuddin.
In 2022, the fund booked unrealised losses in both local and global exposure. The fund typically makes around RM5 billion to RM6 billion in net income “but 2023 was an inflection year” and the markets turned, he told reporters at the retirement fund’s results announcement on Wednesday.
Bulk of the returns were contributed by its investment in the stock market.
Public equity made up 47.9% of its total investment assets, followed by fixed income at 35.5%, real estate 5.3%, private equity 4.8%, money market 4.4%, and infrastructure 2.1%.
Geographically, more than 75% of KWAP's investment assets were in Malaysia, while international markets accounted for 24.4% of its portfolio.
KWAP’s fund size grew 7.4% to RM169.8 billion in 2023, from RM158.1 billion in 2022, after taking into account withdrawals totalling RM3 billion by the government to partially finance its pension liabilities.
As of Dec 31, 2023, KWAP supported 790,772 pension recipients across Malaysia, comprising 73% pensioners and 27% derivative recipients. This marked a 2.8% increase, or 21,825 more recipients, from 2022.
Despite the increase of recipients in 2023, pension service performance achieved an annual weighted score of 99.4% in 2023, surpassing the performance threshold of 95% set in the service level agreement with the Public Service Department.