01
17 March 1978DECISION
Permodalan Nasional Berhad is established.
PNB is created as an instrument of the New Economic Policy to increase Bumiputera participation in corporate ownership while building a professional national investment institution.
← ChronologyUpdated 5 Oct 2026
CHRONOLOGY · INVESTING · PNB
PNB: how unit trusts turned corporate ownership into a mass-investment story
A chronology of Permodalan Nasional Berhad from its 1978 New Economic Policy mandate through ASN, the Guthrie Dawn Raid, ASB, strategic corporate stakes and the Merdeka 118 era.
Year by year12 events1978-03-17 → 2026-10-05
ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY SUMMARYWatch the sequence before reading the full story.
1978-03-17→2026-10-05
STORY AT A GLANCE
Watch the sequence before reading the full story.
A chronology of Permodalan Nasional Berhad from its 1978 New Economic Policy mandate through ASN, the Guthrie Dawn Raid, ASB, strategic corporate stakes and the Merdeka 118 era.
12 EVENTS14 SOURCE LINKS
EVENT 1 OF 1217 March 1978Permodalan Nasional Berhad is established.
PNB is created as an instrument of the New Economic Policy to increase Bumiputera participation in corporate ownership while building a professional national investment institution.
WHY THIS HISTORY MATTERSPNB helped make investing a mass-market activity while also reshaping ownership of major Malaysian companies.
Continue to full chronology ↓Its history connects household savings, the New Economic Policy, corporate control and national development projects in a way few other Malaysian institutions do.
FULL TIMELINE · SCROLL / CLICK / DRAG TO EXPLORE
Each step is dated and sourced. Statements, allegations, decisions and confirmed actions stay labelled separately so the timeline does not turn one side's claim into an established fact.
HOW WE GOT HERE
Follow the sequence, not just the headline.
02
22 May 1979ACTION
Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad is established to manage PNB's unit trust funds.
ASNB becomes the channel through which millions of Malaysians can hold investment units backed by PNB-managed portfolios.
03
1981MONEY
Amanah Saham Nasional launches.
The fund converts PNB's corporate-investment mandate into a mass retail-investment product.
04
1981ACTION
The Guthrie 'Dawn Raid' becomes PNB's defining early corporate acquisition.
PNB acquires control of Guthrie Corporation PLC in London, bringing a major plantation group with deep Malaysian roots under Malaysian ownership.
05
1984MONEY
PNB acquires a majority stake in Maybank.
The move gives PNB a major strategic position in Malaysia's largest domestic banking franchise.
06
1988MONEY
PNB takes over UMW.
The portfolio expands further into industrial, automotive and engineering businesses.
07
1990MONEY
Amanah Saham Bumiputera launches.
ASB becomes one of Malaysia's most important household investment products and a central part of PNB's wealth-building mandate.
08
1993DECISION
PNB participates in the UMW-Daihatsu joint venture that creates Perodua.
The investment links the national investment institution to Malaysia's second national-car project.
09
2000STATUS
PNB takes over stewardship of the Stadium Merdeka heritage site.
Restoration work later returns the stadium to its original 1957 architectural form and ties PNB's property role to national heritage.
10
10 January 2024STATUS
Merdeka 118 is officially inaugurated.
The tower becomes PNB's most visible real-estate project and one of the world's tallest buildings, while the surrounding precinct combines commercial development with heritage restoration.
11
2024MONEY
PNB reports RM348.3 billion in assets under management.
Its 2024 report records 13 million unitholders and RM263.7 billion of income distributed since inception.
12
TodaySTATUS
PNB now combines strategic domestic holdings with global, private-market, fixed-income and property investments.
The institution has evolved from a domestic ownership-policy vehicle into one of Malaysia's largest professional fund managers while retaining a national wealth-building mandate.
WHAT MADE PNB DIFFERENT?
It connected strategic corporate ownership with ordinary household investment accounts.
The unit-trust model widened participation.
ASN and later ASB allowed individual savers to participate indirectly in large diversified portfolios rather than buying strategic companies directly.
PNB also acted as an active corporate owner.
Guthrie, Maybank and UMW show that the institution was designed to shape ownership patterns, not merely track market indices.
Merdeka 118 shows how the portfolio expanded beyond listed equities.
Real estate, heritage and urban development now sit alongside public equities, private markets and fixed income.
WHY THIS HISTORY MATTERS
PNB helped make investing a mass-market activity while also reshaping ownership of major Malaysian companies.
Its history connects household savings, the New Economic Policy, corporate control and national development projects in a way few other Malaysian institutions do.
Questions the chronology cannot answer yet.
01How should PNB balance stable distributions with the need to take long-term investment risk?
02How much of its portfolio should remain strategically Malaysian versus globally diversified?
03What does success mean for PNB today: returns, Bumiputera wealth, broad household participation or national strategic outcomes?
The events that would move this story forward.
01Future ASNB fund growth and distribution policy.
02Portfolio diversification into global and private markets.
03Merdeka 118 precinct completion and long-term investment performance.
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