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Kuwait''s PISS makes up for ledger losses, investments up to KD 15.9 bln

KUWAIT, June 15 (KUNA) -- Fahad Al-Rajaan, Director General of the Public Institution for Social Security (PISS), said Wednesday that the institution has managed to fully make up for its losses last year.
Al-Rajaan added, in a statement made to Arabia news channel today, that the PISS which saw its ledger investment dropping to KD 1.8 billion during the financial crisis in 2008, had investment revenues exceeded eight percent to hit some KD 15.9 billion last year.
He also said that PISS faced criticisms against the backdrop of its ledger losses, though the decline in its profits did not exceed 12.7 percent, while it ranged between 20 to 30 percent within global institutions, noting that PISS has been able to make up for these losses in view of its surefootedness on selecting its investments, and their sound geographical and sector distribution.
Al-Rajaan also said that the losses came out of a drop in the accumulative profits, and not out of the capital loss, noting that world auditing criteria imposed a new model for evaluating budget on the basis of the equity price in case of being liquefied, and when the annual inventory is being carried out, namely the share market price.
He also said that the institution will employ the new earnings, and the surplus made to subscribe to good development and operational firms, and it will also work toward investing its lands in the coming period, hoping that government will expedite the privatization steps along with setting up development firms in order to create new job opportunities in the labor market.
Regarding opportunities available within the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE), Al-Rajaan said that injecting new funds by PISS into KSE is currently suspended till some questions related to the requirements of the new Capital Market Authority (CMA) and its bylaw are fulfiled.
Finally, he revealed a new figure on PISS national portfolio amounting to KD 226 million, namely by an increase of KD 116 million, a figure which was mentioned by the Audit Bureau report on the PISS investments which amounted to KD 110 million in March 31, 2010. (end) mam.nfa.aff KUNA 152146 Jun 11NNNN