LTAT to pay out record 16pc dividend

KUALA LUMPUR: Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) will pay the highest dividend in its 40-year history after posting its best ever results.

The armed forces fund board has declared a 16 per cent dividend with a record RM759.3 million payout for its financial year ended 2012.

LTAT posted a record income of slightly over RM900 million last year and targets earnings to breach RM1 billion this year.

"The 16 per cent dividend is the highest ever payout since LTAT's establishment 40 years ago," Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.

In the previous year, LTAT gave out a 15 per cent dividend.

LTAT manages the monthly contribution deducted from the salaries of the country's armed forces personnel.

The fund did not disclose its membership number and contribution due to security and strategic reasons.

LTAT registered a total income of RM907.4 million last year, up 5.5 per cent from RM860 million the previous year.

"The (RM1 billion income) target can be achieved by riding on high crude palm oil prices and better financial market, property and retail sectors," Ahmad Zahid told reporters at the Defence Ministry here yesterday to announce LTAT's 2012 financial results.

LTAT has stakes in companies such as Boustead Holdings, Affin Bank and the Curve shopping centre in Mutiara Damansara and the Royale Bintang Hotel.

The dividend payout - comprising seven per cent dividend, one per cent bonus dividend and 8 per cent special bonus in the form of unit trusts - is a 11.6 per cent increase from last year's total payout of RM680.4 million.

The average yearly dividend and bonus paid for the past 40 years is 11 per cent, 14.8 per cent for the past 10 years and 15 per cent for the past five years.

As at December last year, LTAT's total assets rose by 10 per cent to RM8.8 billion from RM8 billion in the previous year, while members' contributions stood at RM7.8 billion compared with RM7.1 billion last year.

Meanwhile, LTAT chief executive and Boustead deputy chairman and group managing director Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin said talks on the latter's plan to take over Singapore's HwangDBS Investment Bank, reportedly to be valued at over RM1.4 billion, are still preliminary stage.