<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Temasek will ponder resources investments
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->TEMASEK Holdings, which has hired BHP Billiton's former chief executive officer, will consider further investments in resources companies as slumping prices force producers to seek partners.
'We're opportunistic,' Mr Nagi Hamiyeh, managing director of investments, said in an interview while attending a conference.
'The resource sector is going to be a very good proxy for economic growth, especially of emerging economies of Asia and the rest of the world.'
Mr Charles 'Chip' Goodyear, whose acquisition of WMC Resources in 2005 for BHP spurred a surge in takeovers in the industry, will become Temasek's chief executive officer from October.
Energy and resources accounted for 5 per cent of Temasek's portfolio in the year to March 2008, according to the company's annual report.
The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index, which tracks 19 raw materials, dropped 36 per cent last year in the biggest annual decline since at least 1957, crimping profits for miners including Brazil's Vale do Rio Doce.
About US$200 billion (S$302 billion) of mining projects were shelved in the global recession, Vale chief financial officer Fabio Barbosa said at the same conference.
'Wherever we see value for our participation, we'll consider' it, said Mr Hamiyeh, who oversees natural resources investments at Temasek.
There are too many mining companies and producers are suffering from 'very severe capital scarcity', he earlier told participants at the Asia Mining Congress in Singapore.
A protracted slowdown could lead to severe swings in prices during a recovery because of supply cutbacks, he said. BLOOMBERG
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->TEMASEK Holdings, which has hired BHP Billiton's former chief executive officer, will consider further investments in resources companies as slumping prices force producers to seek partners.
'We're opportunistic,' Mr Nagi Hamiyeh, managing director of investments, said in an interview while attending a conference.
'The resource sector is going to be a very good proxy for economic growth, especially of emerging economies of Asia and the rest of the world.'
Mr Charles 'Chip' Goodyear, whose acquisition of WMC Resources in 2005 for BHP spurred a surge in takeovers in the industry, will become Temasek's chief executive officer from October.
Energy and resources accounted for 5 per cent of Temasek's portfolio in the year to March 2008, according to the company's annual report.
The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index, which tracks 19 raw materials, dropped 36 per cent last year in the biggest annual decline since at least 1957, crimping profits for miners including Brazil's Vale do Rio Doce.
About US$200 billion (S$302 billion) of mining projects were shelved in the global recession, Vale chief financial officer Fabio Barbosa said at the same conference.
'Wherever we see value for our participation, we'll consider' it, said Mr Hamiyeh, who oversees natural resources investments at Temasek.
There are too many mining companies and producers are suffering from 'very severe capital scarcity', he earlier told participants at the Asia Mining Congress in Singapore.
A protracted slowdown could lead to severe swings in prices during a recovery because of supply cutbacks, he said. BLOOMBERG
