KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 15): Since 2021, Permodalan Nasional Bhd’s (PNB) assets under management (AUM) have been stagnating, partly because Malaysians are saving and investing less with the government-linked investment company's (GLIC) many funds. Its president and group chief executive Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad hopes to change that and grow its AUM again.

“It has become an uphill challenge to get Malaysians to save and invest. This has put pressure on PNB’s ability to grow its AUM, because we rely purely on voluntary savings. All investment funds need to grow their funds in a measured manner in order to deliver sustainable returns,” says Abdul Rahman in a recent interview with The Edge. 

Abdul Rahman is no stranger to PNB, having once held the same position at the GLIC between 2016 and 2019, before stepping into the role as the group chief executive officer of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (KL:CIMB) in 2020. 

He returned to PNB in mid-2024, and says his mandate now is to provide continuity of strategy and to execute it successfully.

Under the leadership of his predecessor, Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn (who left to head the Employees Provident Fund), PNB developed a strategic plan — LEAP 6 — which Abdul Rahman says he has “refined” and is effectively following through with. 

The three-year plan is focused on growing PNB’s AUM to RM400 billion by 2027, through the execution of transformation across six key pillars, which are sales and distribution, investment, PNB company transformation, knowledge, innovation, and sustainability.

Under the first pillar of sales and distribution, which focuses on voluntary savings, PNB is changing its approach from a passive stance to aggressively promoting financial literacy, and promoting itself as an investment destination for Malaysians. That said, while PNB is aware that this will raise its AUM, the bigger driver, according to Abdul Rahman, is the investment returns it offers, which form another pillar under LEAP 6.

One way of achieving better returns for its funds, says Abdul Rahman, is “to drive corporate Malaysia” — particularly companies in which PNB has invested substantially — to deliver better shareholder value on a sustainable basis, given its large exposure to the local equity market.

What does this mean and how will PNB execute this?

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