PNB aims for steady income from overseas property investments

KOTA BARU: Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB)'s move to invest in the real estate business overseas is aimed at good returns, said PNB president and chief executive Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman.

The focus has been on equity investments all this while, he said.

Among the properties acquired overseas include Santos Place in Brisbane, Australia, and three other properties in London - namely One Exchange in Liverpool Street, as well as 90 High Holborn, and Milton and Shire House in Silk Street, Central London.

"In the past, PNB's focus had definitely been on equity investments, but now we are venturing into the real estate sector as it is expected to provide stable returns," he told reporters after officiating at a forum here yesterday on the Economic Transformation Programme and its challenges and opportunities for the east coast region.

The programme was organised by Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) with the help of the National Professors' Council (NPC).

Hamad Kama Piah, who is also chairman of the UMK board of directors, expressed hope that the congregation of the economic experts and professors would help contribute towards the success of the economic transformation plans for the east coast.

Meanwhile, chief of the NPC's Economic and Management Cluster, Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali, said the 1,700 members of NPC who are professors from the various institutions of higher learning in the country, both private and public, were capable of providing expertise service in their various sectors towards advancing the country's economy.

By Bernama