Our Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib has announced the mini budget of RM60billion earlier to stimulus the economy. One of the programme in this budget is the Sukuk Simpanan Rakyat 2009 (Islamic Bond). The objective of this bond is to give a chance to people to earn some income during this economy crisis period, where most of the people not dare to invest in equity.
This bond is opened for all Malaysian above 21 year old, and the minimum investment is RM1,000, while the maximum investment is RM50,000 per investor. The bond will be launched at 14 May 2009, but the offer period is from 14 April 2009 to 13 May 2009. The agent for this offer will be all the commercial banks, including Bank Islam, Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN), and Bank Pertanian Malaysia. Commercial banks are banks like Maybank, Public Bank, CIMB Bank, EON Bank, Ambank, RHB Bank and so forth.
The maturity period of this bond is 3 years from the issue date. Interest will be paid out quarterly with 5% interest per annum. This means that if you invest RM1,000 into it, you will receive RM12.50 every quarter, until the bond is matured after 3 years. After 3 years, you will get back your initial investment, which is RM1,000. So, in total you will receive RM150 of interest during these 3 years.
For more detailed, you can refer to the Bank Negara website:
Feature: http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=226&pg=731&ac=672
FAQ: http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=226&pg=731&ac=674
Personally thinking, this bond is suitable for those who not able to take risk at all. At this time, bond with 5% is really not bad, as the Fixed Deposits interest rate now is only 2.5% per annum. However, during this economy crisis, stocks market has dropped quite a lot, and most of the stocks now are at fair value level, and some even are undervalued. For those who can bear the risk and looking for higher return, should consider to invest in equity instead of this bond.
