# Khazanah Nasional: What Malaysia's Sovereign Wealth Fund Actually Owns and Owes

> Entity page for Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund — its mandate, ownership, portfolio and how it differs from the EPF and PNB, the two other GLICs it is most often confused with.

- Category: economy
- Language: en
- Status: published
- Updated: 2026-07-24
- Canonical: https://negaraku.md/en/economy/khazanah

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## At a glance

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Full name | Khazanah Nasional Berhad |
| Registration number | 199301020767 (275505-K) |
| Type | Sovereign wealth fund, wholly owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated |
| Operations began | 1994, as custodian of the Government's commercial assets |
| Classification | One of six Government-Linked Investment Companies (GLICs) |
| Net assets (FY2025) | RM105 billion |
| Profit from operations (FY2025) | RM5.6 billion |
| Dividend to Government (2025) | RM2 billion; RM21.1 billion cumulative since 2004 |
| Website | `khazanah.com.my` |

Khazanah does not manage anyone's personal retirement account, and it doesn't
sell units to the public. That single fact is what separates it from the two
funds people most often confuse it with — the EPF and PNB — and it's the
question this page answers.

## What a GLIC actually is

"GLIC" is the label the Ministry of Finance uses for a specific group of
state-linked investment entities. Per its own PERKUKUH reform documentation,
Malaysia has six: Khazanah Nasional, Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP), the
Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), Lembaga
Tabung Haji (LTH) and Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT).

Being grouped together for policy purposes doesn't mean these six work the
same way. They differ on the two questions that matter most: **who gives them
money, and who they owe it to.**

## Where Khazanah's money comes from — and where it doesn't

Khazanah commenced operations in 1994 in a custodial role, managing the
Government's existing commercial assets and investing in strategic and
high-technology sectors. In practice, that means Khazanah's starting capital
was the Government's own stakes in companies — not money collected from
individuals.

Today Khazanah's portfolio is organised into an Investments Portfolio (private
equity, real assets and public markets), a Dana Impak developmental portfolio,
legacy Developmental Assets, and Special Situations holdings. Major listed
positions include CIMB, Telekom Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional, IHH Healthcare,
Axiata, Malaysia Airports and Astro.

For 2025, Khazanah reported net assets of RM105 billion, total assets of
RM156 billion, and profit from operations of RM5.6 billion — a 5.2% return for
the year and a 6.1% seven-year rolling annualised return. It returned RM2
billion to the Federal Government as dividend in 2025, taking its cumulative
dividend contribution since 2004 to RM21.1 billion. A year earlier, for 2024,
net asset value stood at RM103.6 billion on a profit from operations of
RM5.1 billion and a NAV time-weighted rate of return of 24.6%, with a
dividend of RM1 billion paid for that year.

That dividend line is the whole point: Khazanah's "customer" is the
Government of Malaysia, not a pool of individual savers.

## Khazanah vs EPF vs PNB

| | Khazanah Nasional | EPF (KWSP) | PNB |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| What it is | Sovereign wealth fund | Mandatory retirement fund | Unit trust manager |
| Founded | Operations commenced 1994 | Constituted under the Employees Provident Fund Act 1991 | 17 March 1978 |
| Who funds it | Government-held assets + retained investment income | Mandatory monthly employer + employee payroll contributions | Public subscriptions to unit trust funds (e.g. ASB, ASM), managed via its ASNB subsidiary |
| Who it answers to | The Federal Government (dividends) | Individual members, each with a personal account | Individual unit holders in its ASNB-managed funds |
| Core mandate | Grow Malaysia's long-term national wealth; hold and grow the state's strategic/commercial assets | Protect and grow individual members' retirement savings | Enhance the economic wealth of the Bumiputera community and all Malaysians, through unit trust returns |
| Individual account holders | None | Yes — each member has a personal EPF account | Yes — each investor holds units directly |

The distinction in practice: if you're an employee, your EPF balance is your
own money, legally ring-fenced to you, with the Act itself guaranteeing a
minimum annual dividend. If you hold ASB or ASM units, that's your own
investment in a fund run by [PNB](/en/economy/pnb) through its ASNB
subsidiary. Neither of those things is true of
Khazanah — no individual Malaysian has a personal claim on a slice of it.
It exists to hold and grow the state's own assets, on the state's behalf.

## Common mistakes

- **Treating Khazanah as a pension fund.** It has no members and pays no
  individual dividends to citizens — that's EPF's and PNB's function, not
  Khazanah's.
- **Assuming every GLC is a Khazanah company.** Khazanah holds stakes in some
  well-known GLCs, but EPF, PNB, KWAP, LTH and LTAT each hold their own
  separate GLC stakes too. See [GLC](/en/glossary/glc) for how the GLC/GLIC
  distinction works.
- **Confusing "sovereign wealth fund" with "government budget."** Khazanah's
  balance sheet is separate from the Federal Government's own accounts in
  [the federal budget](/en/economy/federal-budget); it pays a dividend to
  the Government rather than being funded from it annually.

## What's next

- How the government's own books work: [the federal budget](/en/economy/federal-budget)
- Where GLCs like Khazanah's holdings actually trade: [Bursa Malaysia](/en/economy/bursa-malaysia)
- The other GLIC most people confuse with Khazanah: [EPF](/en/glossary/epf)
- The fund that actually sells units to the public: [PNB](/en/economy/pnb)
- What a GLC is, and how it differs from a GLIC: [GLC](/en/glossary/glc)
- Malaysia's central bank, a separate statutory body entirely:
  [Bank Negara Malaysia](/en/economy/bank-negara-malaysia)

## Sources

- About Us — https://www.khazanah.com.my/who-we-are/about-us/ (Khazanah Nasional Berhad)
- History & Milestones — https://www.khazanah.com.my/who-we-are/history-milestones/ (Khazanah Nasional Berhad)
- Our Portfolio — https://www.khazanah.com.my/our-performance/our-portfolio/ (Khazanah Nasional Berhad)
- RM5.1 billion profit from operations for 2024, strong performance of Malaysian investment and significant value creation initiatives — https://www.khazanah.com.my/news_press_releases/rm5-1-billion-profit-from-operations-for-2024-strong-performance-of-malaysian-investment-and-significant-value-creation-initiatives/ (Khazanah Nasional Berhad)
- Khazanah Demonstrates Resilience in 2025 Amidst Global Volatility — https://www.khazanah.com.my/newsroom/press-releases/khazanah-demonstrates-resilience-in-2025-amidst-global-volatility/ (Khazanah Nasional Berhad)
- GLICs to Strengthen Governance, Capitalise on New Opportunities, Create Stable Returns for Rakyat — https://www.mof.gov.my/portal/en/news/press-release/glics-to-strengthen-governance-capitalise-on-new-opportunities-create-stable-returns-for-rakyat (Ministry of Finance Malaysia)
- About Us — https://www.pnb.com.my/en/about-us-en (Permodalan Nasional Berhad)
- Employees Provident Fund Act 1991 (Act 452) — https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/LOM/EN/Act%20452.pdf (Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia)

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