DANAVEST

(Business Times) PUBLIC Bank’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Public Mutual Bhd, today declared the final dividends for five of its funds for the financial year ended May 31, 2009.

The distributable income comprised 6.00 sen for the Public Ittikal Fund, 1.75 sen for the Public Islamic Equity Fund, 2.00 sen for the Public Dividend Select Fund, 5.00 sen for the Public Balanced Fund, and 2.50 sen for the Public Select Bond Fund.

In a statement today, Public Mutual’s chairman Tan Sri Dr Teh Hong Piow said he was pleased that the company was able to declare distributions on the five funds despite the current trying times.

“Although the market conditions were challenging, our funds still managed to outperform their respective benchmarks and achieved respectable double-digit three year returns to investors,” he said.

Based on The Edge-Lipper report dated May 18 this year, Public Ittikal Fund and Public Islamic Equity Fund generated a three-year return of 16.87 per cent and 19.26 per cent respectively for the period ended May 8 this year.

Public Mutual said both funds outperformed the benchmark, which registered a return of 7.92 per cent for the same period.

Meanwhile, Public Dividend Select Fund generated a three-year return of 23.33 per cent for the period ended May 8 this year, outperforming the benchmark, which registered a return of 6.30 per cent for the same period.

Public Balanced Fund and Public Select Bond Fund also surpassed their respective benchmarks by registering three-year returns of 26.33 per cent and 13.85 per cent respectively.

Public Mutual, which is the largest private unit trust company in Malaysia, manages 69 funds for more than two million account holders.

As at May 8 this year, the total net asset value of the funds managed by the company was RM27.4 billion.