Another government-backed fund is seen to be progressively disposing off units in Malaysian REITs. Malaysia's Employee Provident Fund Board (KWSP) has disposed 708,500 units and 404,300 units in Malaysia-listed Pavilion REIT and Sunway REIT respectively.

Malaysia's Sunway REIT holds several popular tourist spots in its property portfolio including Sunway Pyramid. Photo: Sunway REIT.

The disposals were revealed in separate announcements filed by the KWSP with the Bursa Malaysia today. No specific reasons were given for each of the two announcements.

The disposals by the KWSP comes on the back of several more disposals of Malaysian REITs made by another government backed fund, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) which disposed over 2 million units in CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust last week.

With the latest transactions, KWSP continues to retain 163 million units in Pavilion REIT and 315 million units in Sunway REIT, a 5.43 percent and 10.8 percent stake respectively.

The KWSP is a compulsory savings plan and retirement planning for legally employed workers in Malaysia. Membership of the EPF is mandatory for working Malaysian citizens. The KWSP makes active investments into Malaysian equities such as REITs in order to generate dividends between 5.8 to 6.1 percent for its members.