In a recent interview with Bloomberg Television (read article here), Singapore’s Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam revealed that Singapore’s state-owned funds invested about $24 billion in UBS, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch in the past 14 months.
Bank losses worldwide from U.S.-originated bad assets may reach $2.2 trillion, the International Monetary Fund said in a report released on 28 January 2009, more than the $1.4 trillion it predicted in October.
The IMF report signaled that writedowns and losses at banks totaling $1.1 trillion so far are only half of what’s to come. Losses on that scale would leave banks needing at least $500 billion in fresh capital to restore confidence in their balance sheets, the fund said.
Singapore’s leaders have defended the performance of the city’s state-owned investment companies after a plunge in the value of their stakes in Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and other global banks.
Government Investment Corp, which manages the country’s reserves, invested about $18 billion in UBS and Citigroup since December 2007. Temasek, which has a $130 billion portfolio, increased investments in Merrill Lynch and Barclays Plc as the credit market collapsed in 2007 and 2008.
As of last week, the shares of Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and UBS have fallen by more than 50% with Temasek staring at a potential paper loss of over S$20 billion dollars, the size of Singapore’s “Resilience Package” unveiled lately in Budget 2009.
Read rest of article here:
http://wayangparty.com/?p=4765
Bank losses worldwide from U.S.-originated bad assets may reach $2.2 trillion, the International Monetary Fund said in a report released on 28 January 2009, more than the $1.4 trillion it predicted in October.
The IMF report signaled that writedowns and losses at banks totaling $1.1 trillion so far are only half of what’s to come. Losses on that scale would leave banks needing at least $500 billion in fresh capital to restore confidence in their balance sheets, the fund said.
Singapore’s leaders have defended the performance of the city’s state-owned investment companies after a plunge in the value of their stakes in Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and other global banks.
Government Investment Corp, which manages the country’s reserves, invested about $18 billion in UBS and Citigroup since December 2007. Temasek, which has a $130 billion portfolio, increased investments in Merrill Lynch and Barclays Plc as the credit market collapsed in 2007 and 2008.
As of last week, the shares of Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and UBS have fallen by more than 50% with Temasek staring at a potential paper loss of over S$20 billion dollars, the size of Singapore’s “Resilience Package” unveiled lately in Budget 2009.
Read rest of article here:
http://wayangparty.com/?p=4765
