KWAP plans UK sale in asset repatriation move

 Malaysia's second-largest pension fund is planning a 270 million pound (USD402 million) sale of an office building in central London, responding to a government call to repatriate funds to prop up the country's ailing stock and currency markets.
Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan), which has about RM120 billion (USD28 billion) of assets, is finalising an agreement to sell an office building at 88 Wood Street in the City of London that it bought in 2013 for 215 million pounds, according to the fund's chief executive officer Wan Kamaruzaman Wan Ahmad. As well as getting a higher sale price, the fund will benefit from the sharp rise in sterling against the ringgit over the past two years.
"We are selling the property because we stand to benefit from real estate and foreign-currency gains," Wan Kamaruzaman said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur earlier this week. "It's also in line with the government call to repatriate gains back to invest in the domestic market."
The government had asked state organisations like KWAP in August to look for ways to sell overseas assets and repatriate the proceeds. Najib said last month that government-linked companies plan to bring home assets worth a total RM627 million during 2015.