Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund (EPF), the country’s largest pension fund, is considering selling off at least seven local properties with an estimated value of 350 million ringgit (US$86.22 million), according to The Edge, a weekly business paper.
The assets include at least three office buildings currently occupied by the EPF, a retail property and a seaside hotel, the paper says in a report on February 6, quoting unnamed sources.
In response, the EPF told the paper that any sale “will be based on the latest independent valuation, and any offer received will be tabled to the management for their further consideration and approval”.
“The decision to buy or sell real estate will also take into consideration the fund’s overall portfolio strategy and the long-term health of the fund,” the fund says.
EPF spokespersons did not immediately respond to questions from Asia Asset Management.
The pension fund may be selling off the office buildings partly because of the significant shift to remote work since the coronavirus pandemic, according to a fund manager at a local asset management company.
“Over the past year, the work from home trend has accelerated tremendously. So, today, many companies, including banks, are looking at the possibilities of decreasing the size of their offices,” the Kuala Lumpur-based manager tells AAM, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The EPF, which manages the retirement savings of private sector workers and the self-employed, had 952 billion ringgit of assets under management as of end-September 2020.
