S$58000000000 is gone.
Even as such, S'pore do not need another alternative party, so says Ah Loong.
66.6, Thank You.
That's what the "mature 66.6 voters" we got and for that, we have to pay for the price.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=ajhvHB_10DEM&refer=asia
Temasek’s Investments Decline 31% Amid Stock Slump (Update2)
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Temasek Holdings Pte’s investments shrank 31 percent in the eight months through Nov. 30 as the global stock-market slump eroded the value of companies from Barclays Plc to Merrill Lynch & Co.
The state-owned investment company’s assets were valued at S$127 billion ($85 billion), down from S$185 billion at the end of March last year, Lim Hwee Hua, senior minister of state with the finance ministry, said today. The MSCI World Index fell 38 percent over the same period in U.S. dollar terms.
Chief Executive Officer Ho Ching, who drove Temasek’s expansion with acquisitions in China, Europe and the U.S., said last week that former BHP Billiton Ltd. head Chip Goodyear will take over the company in October. Temasek and Government of Singapore Investment Corp., the nation’s other sovereign wealth investor, have seen the value of their stakes in banks including Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG slide amid the global credit crisis.
“It’s easy to say the acquisitions were done at the wrong price but I believe Temasek and GIC took the risks based on their due diligence,” said Scott Lim, who oversees about $800 million as chief executive officer of Amanah Asset Management Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “The depth of the crisis is something we couldn’t have anticipated.”
Goodyear, 51, will become the first foreigner to run the company when he takes over from Ho, 55, the wife of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Temasek generated annual returns of 17 percent between its inception in 1974 and the end of March.
Sovereign Wealth Investors
Sovereign wealth funds in Asia and the Middle East have pumped money into global financial institutions to help replenish capital eroded by writedowns and losses. Barclays raised 5.3 billion pounds ($7.8 billion) in October by selling securities to a group of Middle-Eastern investors including Qatar Holding LLC.
Temasek said on Aug. 26 profit for the year ended March 31 doubled to S$18.2 billion as sales of energy and Chinese banking assets countered slowing returns from stock-market investments. Temasek has a controlling stake in six of Singapore’s 10 biggest companies, including DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.
The company invested about $5.9 billion in Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit. It bought about 9 percent of the New York- based firm in December 2007 for $5 billion, or $48 a share, though its effective purchase price was reduced in July when the bank gave it a further $2.5 billion in shares. The investment bank’s shares lost 78 percent last year before the stock was delisted.
The Singapore investment company now holds about 189 million shares in Bank of America after converting its Merrill Lynch stock. Bank of America completed the Merrill Lynch purchase on Jan. 1.
Won’t Bail Out Companies
Temasek must make its investment decisions on a commercial basis, and should itself determine whether to increase investments in local companies, Lim said today in Parliament. She was responding to a question on whether the government will ask Temasek to increase its holdings in Singapore companies as economic growth deteriorates and share prices slump.
The government will instead assess whether a separate fund is needed to rescue local companies, Lim said.
“There has been a lot of talk, even at coffee shops at the grassroots level and among our residents, about the losses by our SWFs and whether this government has undone what our past government had so painstakingly built up,” said Inderjit Singh, a member of Parliament for the ruling People’s Action Party, and CEO of Infiniti Solution Pte, a provider of services to chipmakers.
Weathering the Cycles
Temasek, along with GIC, reduced its equity holdings amid the global slump last year “early in the crisis,” helping the funds post smaller losses than the MSCI World Index, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said on Jan. 19.
“GIC and Temasek have the ability and resources to weather the ups and downs, over multiple economic and market cycles,” Lim said. “The government is confident that they will continue to deliver good long-term returns within the risk limits set.”
GIC, overseeing more than $100 billion of reserves, has invested about $18 billion in UBS and Citigroup since December 2007. UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, today reported a fourth- quarter loss of 8.1 billion Swiss francs ($6.9 billion) on trading losses and leveraged loan impairments, and said it plans to cut more investment banking jobs this year.
The fund said on Sept. 23 annual returns in the past 20 years averaged 7.8 percent in U.S. dollar terms, compared with 7 percent for the MSCI World Index.
GIC and Temasek both have “proper, sound” risk management practices, Lim said. The government reviews the risk limits for the two companies from time to time, she said, adding that current limits aren’t “aggressive.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Shiyin Chen in Singapore at [email protected]
Last Updated: February 10, 2009 06:34 EST
Even as such, S'pore do not need another alternative party, so says Ah Loong.
66.6, Thank You.
That's what the "mature 66.6 voters" we got and for that, we have to pay for the price.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=ajhvHB_10DEM&refer=asia
Temasek’s Investments Decline 31% Amid Stock Slump (Update2)
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Temasek Holdings Pte’s investments shrank 31 percent in the eight months through Nov. 30 as the global stock-market slump eroded the value of companies from Barclays Plc to Merrill Lynch & Co.
The state-owned investment company’s assets were valued at S$127 billion ($85 billion), down from S$185 billion at the end of March last year, Lim Hwee Hua, senior minister of state with the finance ministry, said today. The MSCI World Index fell 38 percent over the same period in U.S. dollar terms.
Chief Executive Officer Ho Ching, who drove Temasek’s expansion with acquisitions in China, Europe and the U.S., said last week that former BHP Billiton Ltd. head Chip Goodyear will take over the company in October. Temasek and Government of Singapore Investment Corp., the nation’s other sovereign wealth investor, have seen the value of their stakes in banks including Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG slide amid the global credit crisis.
“It’s easy to say the acquisitions were done at the wrong price but I believe Temasek and GIC took the risks based on their due diligence,” said Scott Lim, who oversees about $800 million as chief executive officer of Amanah Asset Management Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “The depth of the crisis is something we couldn’t have anticipated.”
Goodyear, 51, will become the first foreigner to run the company when he takes over from Ho, 55, the wife of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Temasek generated annual returns of 17 percent between its inception in 1974 and the end of March.
Sovereign Wealth Investors
Sovereign wealth funds in Asia and the Middle East have pumped money into global financial institutions to help replenish capital eroded by writedowns and losses. Barclays raised 5.3 billion pounds ($7.8 billion) in October by selling securities to a group of Middle-Eastern investors including Qatar Holding LLC.
Temasek said on Aug. 26 profit for the year ended March 31 doubled to S$18.2 billion as sales of energy and Chinese banking assets countered slowing returns from stock-market investments. Temasek has a controlling stake in six of Singapore’s 10 biggest companies, including DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.
The company invested about $5.9 billion in Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit. It bought about 9 percent of the New York- based firm in December 2007 for $5 billion, or $48 a share, though its effective purchase price was reduced in July when the bank gave it a further $2.5 billion in shares. The investment bank’s shares lost 78 percent last year before the stock was delisted.
The Singapore investment company now holds about 189 million shares in Bank of America after converting its Merrill Lynch stock. Bank of America completed the Merrill Lynch purchase on Jan. 1.
Won’t Bail Out Companies
Temasek must make its investment decisions on a commercial basis, and should itself determine whether to increase investments in local companies, Lim said today in Parliament. She was responding to a question on whether the government will ask Temasek to increase its holdings in Singapore companies as economic growth deteriorates and share prices slump.
The government will instead assess whether a separate fund is needed to rescue local companies, Lim said.
“There has been a lot of talk, even at coffee shops at the grassroots level and among our residents, about the losses by our SWFs and whether this government has undone what our past government had so painstakingly built up,” said Inderjit Singh, a member of Parliament for the ruling People’s Action Party, and CEO of Infiniti Solution Pte, a provider of services to chipmakers.
Weathering the Cycles
Temasek, along with GIC, reduced its equity holdings amid the global slump last year “early in the crisis,” helping the funds post smaller losses than the MSCI World Index, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said on Jan. 19.
“GIC and Temasek have the ability and resources to weather the ups and downs, over multiple economic and market cycles,” Lim said. “The government is confident that they will continue to deliver good long-term returns within the risk limits set.”
GIC, overseeing more than $100 billion of reserves, has invested about $18 billion in UBS and Citigroup since December 2007. UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, today reported a fourth- quarter loss of 8.1 billion Swiss francs ($6.9 billion) on trading losses and leveraged loan impairments, and said it plans to cut more investment banking jobs this year.
The fund said on Sept. 23 annual returns in the past 20 years averaged 7.8 percent in U.S. dollar terms, compared with 7 percent for the MSCI World Index.
GIC and Temasek both have “proper, sound” risk management practices, Lim said. The government reviews the risk limits for the two companies from time to time, she said, adding that current limits aren’t “aggressive.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Shiyin Chen in Singapore at [email protected]
Last Updated: February 10, 2009 06:34 EST
