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http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/0...tishman-blackrock-default-on-stuyvesant-town/
GIC faces potential losses of more than SGD$1 billion dollars as Tishman, BlackRock Default on Stuyvesant Town
January 10, 2010 by admin
Written by Our Correspondent
Singapore’s Government Investment Corp. (GIC) faces potential losses of more than SGD$1 billion dollars in another failed overseas investment, this time in an upscale apartment complex in New York – Stuyvesant Town.
The sprawling Manhattan apartment complex known as Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town was acquired for $5.4 billion in 2006 by Tishman Speyer Properties and a unit of BlackRock Inc.
According to a Wall Street Journal report in September 2009, Singapore’s GIC owns a $575 million mezzanine loan backed by the property, and about $100 million to $200 million in equity which amounts to roughly SGD$1 billion dollars or more.
On 8 January 2010, Tishman Speyer and BlackRock Inc released an official statement saying that “they wouldn’t make a full scheduled debt payment to senior lenders on Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.” (read report here)
CWCapital, the special servicer acting on behalf of the lenders is expected to issue a notice of default over the payment which amounts to $16 million dollars.
GIC risks having its entire investment wiped out unless it buys up more senior debt. As usual, GIC has declined to comment on the matter which was not reported in the Singapore media.
Though GIC proclaimed itself to be a global investment management company established in 1981 to manage Singapore’s foreign reserves”, its primary source of funds come from Singapore taxpayers. It is not a private equity company, but a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Ministry of Finance.
The Chairman of GIC is a former Prime Minister of Singapore who currently holds the position of “Minister Mentor” – Lee Kuan Yew. His daughter-in-law Ho Ching heads the other sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings. His son is the present Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong.
Still, the potential $1 billion loss pales in comparison to the losses it suffered in the fiscal year ended March 2009 – estimated at around $59 billion Singapore dollars by Wall Street Journal. (read article here)
GIC is the world’s fourth largest sovereign fund in terms of money managed, according to Deutsche Bank, with high-profile investments in Western financial institutions like Citigroup and UBS.
Though he is a lawyer by training and has little experience in the finance industry, MM Lee was appointed as a “special advisor” by Citigroup in 2006. He has since relinquished the position.
Despite losing billions of dollars, MM Lee remains in charge of GIC and nobody knows its exact losses to this day. There is no opposition in Parliament to check on the ruling party to hold it accountable to the people.
Singapore’s Elected President is supposed to safeguard the nation’s reserves. However when former President Ong Teng Cheong tried to find out the real figures, he was told by the Accountant General that it would take 52-man years to produce the list of assets held by the Government.
In the corporate sector, CEOs who lost so as much money will probably be sacked immediately. In Singapore, nobody has stepped forward to assume responsibility for the losses.
In a famous interview with Channel News Asia on 4 April 2007, MM Lee warned that the Singapore economy would be in jeopardy if it does not pay top dollar for top people.
“So for the average family earning S$1,500-S$3,000, we are talking of astronomical figures but for people like me in government, to deal with the money which we have accumulated by the sweat of our brow over the last 40 years, you have to pay the market rate or the man will up stakes and join Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers or Goldman Sachs and you would have an incompetent man and you would have lost money by the billions………..If you are going to quarrel about S$46 million – up or down another S$10 to S$20 million – I say you don’t have a sense of proportion.”
Singaporeans really have no sense of “proportion” of the losses suffered by their two sovereign wealth funds so far.
GIC faces potential losses of more than SGD$1 billion dollars as Tishman, BlackRock Default on Stuyvesant Town
January 10, 2010 by admin
Written by Our Correspondent
Singapore’s Government Investment Corp. (GIC) faces potential losses of more than SGD$1 billion dollars in another failed overseas investment, this time in an upscale apartment complex in New York – Stuyvesant Town.
The sprawling Manhattan apartment complex known as Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town was acquired for $5.4 billion in 2006 by Tishman Speyer Properties and a unit of BlackRock Inc.
According to a Wall Street Journal report in September 2009, Singapore’s GIC owns a $575 million mezzanine loan backed by the property, and about $100 million to $200 million in equity which amounts to roughly SGD$1 billion dollars or more.
On 8 January 2010, Tishman Speyer and BlackRock Inc released an official statement saying that “they wouldn’t make a full scheduled debt payment to senior lenders on Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.” (read report here)
CWCapital, the special servicer acting on behalf of the lenders is expected to issue a notice of default over the payment which amounts to $16 million dollars.
GIC risks having its entire investment wiped out unless it buys up more senior debt. As usual, GIC has declined to comment on the matter which was not reported in the Singapore media.
Though GIC proclaimed itself to be a global investment management company established in 1981 to manage Singapore’s foreign reserves”, its primary source of funds come from Singapore taxpayers. It is not a private equity company, but a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Ministry of Finance.
The Chairman of GIC is a former Prime Minister of Singapore who currently holds the position of “Minister Mentor” – Lee Kuan Yew. His daughter-in-law Ho Ching heads the other sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings. His son is the present Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong.
Still, the potential $1 billion loss pales in comparison to the losses it suffered in the fiscal year ended March 2009 – estimated at around $59 billion Singapore dollars by Wall Street Journal. (read article here)
GIC is the world’s fourth largest sovereign fund in terms of money managed, according to Deutsche Bank, with high-profile investments in Western financial institutions like Citigroup and UBS.
Though he is a lawyer by training and has little experience in the finance industry, MM Lee was appointed as a “special advisor” by Citigroup in 2006. He has since relinquished the position.
Despite losing billions of dollars, MM Lee remains in charge of GIC and nobody knows its exact losses to this day. There is no opposition in Parliament to check on the ruling party to hold it accountable to the people.
Singapore’s Elected President is supposed to safeguard the nation’s reserves. However when former President Ong Teng Cheong tried to find out the real figures, he was told by the Accountant General that it would take 52-man years to produce the list of assets held by the Government.
In the corporate sector, CEOs who lost so as much money will probably be sacked immediately. In Singapore, nobody has stepped forward to assume responsibility for the losses.
In a famous interview with Channel News Asia on 4 April 2007, MM Lee warned that the Singapore economy would be in jeopardy if it does not pay top dollar for top people.
“So for the average family earning S$1,500-S$3,000, we are talking of astronomical figures but for people like me in government, to deal with the money which we have accumulated by the sweat of our brow over the last 40 years, you have to pay the market rate or the man will up stakes and join Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers or Goldman Sachs and you would have an incompetent man and you would have lost money by the billions………..If you are going to quarrel about S$46 million – up or down another S$10 to S$20 million – I say you don’t have a sense of proportion.”
Singaporeans really have no sense of “proportion” of the losses suffered by their two sovereign wealth funds so far.
