KHAZANAH AIMS TO CUT DEBT TO RM35 BLN-RM40 BLN IN NEXT 3-5 YEARS: MD

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7  -- Khazanah Nasional Bhd aims to reduce its debt to between RM35 billion and RM40 billion in the next three to five years from the ongoing asset sales, managing director Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan said.

The country’s sovereign wealth fund targets to cut its debt from RM55 billion to RM47 billion this year.

“This is our medium-term plan to basically focus on a sustainable level of debt, and it is about providing a more sustainable balance sheet for Khazanah for the long term.

“We need to make sure that the debt is correctly positioned to support the assets and activities of Khazanah,” he told reporters at the Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2019 here today.

“We have two goals for this year, the first is to improve our portfolio through the process of selling assets without a long-term future for us, and we will reinvest the money generated in new assets.

“The second is to improve our balance sheet, that is, to reduce our debt burden,” he explained.

He added that Khazanah is expected to generate RM5 billion in potential revenue this year.

In an interview with RTM last week, he was reported as saying that the company’s asset value stood at RM130 billion.

For 2018, Khazanah recorded a pre-tax loss of RM6.271 billion compared to a pre-tax profit of RM2.896 billion the previous year.

The profits were affected by slightly higher disposals compared to previous years, lower dividend income and higher depreciation provision, as the company went through a transition process which also coincided with market volatility.

Khazanah declared a dividend of RM1.5 billion for 2018.

--BERNAMA