A sovereign wealth fund's existential crisis
Khazanah's latest annual review looks polished, but there's more.
Since we’re coming off a holiday-fuelled week, I’m going to catch up on some newsy stuff I missed out, given that a lot of the focus has been on the MACC chief Azam Baki, his stock market punting and the Bloomberg exposes that got the ball rolling.
Today’s post takes a look at Khazanah Nasional as the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund released its 2026 annual review (KAR 2026) last week.
The next newsletter will take a look at the private equity professional who’s still in the orbit of Victor Chin, the man who’s part of the so-called corporate mafia (a claim he denies), and also a break down of money that’s flowing into some renowned F&B businesses.
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I’m circling back to Khazanah’s annual review, despite the 2025 accounts not yet being published (which should be out soon), since it’s topical.
I have written about the sovereign wealth fund across a number of newsletters, so there are some things I won’t rehash: FashionValet, an elaborate mention of VC/PE, the political exposure since the prime minister is the fund’s chairman, things like that.
I’ll pair KAR 2026 — essentially the snapshot of how the fund fared in 2025 — with the PAC’s 2025 proceedings.
And, because consultancy GlobalSWF benchmarked Khazanah against global peers last year, I’ll do the same: Norges Bank, New Zealand’s SuperFund, and I’ll throw in Singapore’s Temasek for good measure.
KAR 2026 presents a polished picture: a resilient net asset value of RM105 billion, a 5.2% portfolio return, and RM5.6 billion in operating profit.
During the press conference, Khazanah MD Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir did flag that a stronger ringgit may dent gains from abroad, among other things. Still, the sentiment was one of confidence.
But, peel back the overall PR narrative, and you’d find an institution still struggling with an identity problem.