Temasek Holdings loses 31 percent of portfolio
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Temasek Holdings loses 31 percent of portfolio
Wednesday, 11 February 2009 Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government’s sovereign wealth fund, said Tuesday the value of its investment portfolio fell by 31 percent of its total, or about $39 billion, between March and November last year, a reflection of the stock market rout set off by the turmoil surrounding U.S. subprime mortgages.
Temasek’s portfolio was worth 127 billion Singapore dollars, or $85 billion, at the end of November, down 31 percent from the end of March. Lim Hwee Hua, senior minister of state with the Finance Ministry, confirmed the figures to Parliament on Tuesday, news agencies reported.
The decline was broadly in line with the performance of the world’s stock markets last year -- the MSCI World Index fell 38 percent over the same period in U.S. dollar terms, Bloomberg News said.
Temasek, which has a wide-ranging portfolio spanning financial services, telecoms, media, infrastructure and other sectors, is nursing losses from high-profile investments that it made in Merrill Lynch and Barclays as it aggressively expanded outside its core Asian market.
Its $5.9 billion investment in Merrill Lynch alone resulted in a loss of more than $2 billion, as the shares plunged before the stock was delisted following the Bank of America purchase.
Temasek controls some of Singapore’s high-profile companies, including Singapore Airlines and Singapore Telecommunications, and has stakes in global companies like Standard Chartered.
Last week, Temasek announced that its chief executive, Ho Ching, would step down and would be replaced by Charles Goodyear, the former chief executive of BHP Billiton, on Oct. 1.
S. Dhanabalan, Temasek’s chairman, said that the decision by Ms. Ho, who drove the state fund’s expansion outside Singapore with acquisitions in China, Europe and the United States, to step down was not linked to performance and that it was too early to determine whether investments made in the last two years will lose out in the long term.
Ms. Ho is married to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/business/worldbusiness/11temasek.html?_r=1&ref=business
Singapore wealth fund loses steam
BBC News
The value of Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings contracted last year as the economic downturn dented the value of its investments.
Temasek said its portfolio had shrunk 31% to 127 billion Singapore dollars (£57.2bn; $84.7bn) in November 2008, down from S$185bn at the end of March.
The value of Temasek's investments in banks such as Merrill Lynch has declined due to the credit crunch.
Temasek bought 9% of Merrill Lynch in 2007 before its shares were delisted.
The country's other sovereign wealth fund, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), has also seen the value of its stakes in banking concerns reduced.
"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 Amanah Asset Management chief executive, Scott Lim.
"The depth of the crisis is something we couldn't have anticipated."
Investment
Temasek had ploughed some US$5.9bn into Merrill Lynch and owned about 9% of the US company.
Merrill Lynch's shares plummeted 78% in value before it was eventually delisted and bought by Bank of America.
Temasek converted its Merrill stock and so now holds 189 million shares in Bank of America.
Despite the losses in foreign holdings, the government said it would not automatically increase investment in local firms, but would instead consider whether to establish another fund to prop up local companies.
The government also highlighted it had been quick to reduce its equity shares shortly after the credit crisis took hold, thereby limiting losses.
What strategy Temasek adopts in the future remains to be seen as chief executive Ho Ching - who is married to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - last week announced she would step down after seven years with the fund.
In October she will be replaced by 51-year-old Chip Goodyear, a former BHP Billiton chief executive.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7881147.stm -
I thought I saw Yahoo saying that they lost like $58 billion, but to them it's all paper losses.
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Think if you are her , how will you feel being the one responsible for these mess and shouldering this guilt forever, someone not so strong as her may even resort to ....
She also have to face the old man at home having tarnishing their legacy
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"I think if you want to run life with regret, you will end up doing very little."
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Aiy... this better not affect people's CPF man...
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Originally posted by Shotgun:
Aiy... this better not affect people's CPF man...
Don't worry, it won't affect it directly.
Indirectly, not many can see.
What you don't know, doesn't hurt.
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Originally posted by Shotgun:
Aiy... this better not affect people's CPF man...
People's CPF?
It's like the tooth fairy and Santa Claus.
Do they exist?
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Originally posted by charlize:
"I think if you want to run life with regret, you will end up doing very little."
doing very little can't be worse than losing more right? -
in my dad's words -> "singapore really lacks talents that we got to find an american to manage our own money"...
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10 months ago, Jim Roger had predicted big loss for Temasek and GIC
Jim Rogers: Singapore to lose on U.S. banks
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Reuters
SINGAPORE -- Investment guru Jim Rogers believes that U.S. bank stocks could fall further and predicts that Singapore's state investors will lose money on their multi-billion dollar investments in Citigroup and Merrill Lynch.
"I'm shorting investment banks on Wall Street," the long-time commodities bull told reporters Wednesday at a launch event for ABN AMRO certificates linked to commodities.
"It grieves me to see what Singapore is doing. They are going to lose money," he added, referring to investments by Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and Temasek in Citigroup, Switzerland's UBS and Merrill Lynch.
Rogers, an American who co-founded the Quantum Fund with billionaire George Soros in the 1970s, now lives in Singapore as he wants to raise his 4-year-old daughter in an environment where she can learn Mandarin Chinese.
Rogers, who also writes investment books, said Wall Street had to work off 10 years of excesses and predicted that losses linked to risky mortgages will eventually spread to credit card bills, student loans and other debt. -
For every risk taken, there is the potential for a return or loss. Temasek can avoid the possiblity of a 31% loss completely by investing in riskless or very low risk assets (e.g. fixed deposits receive 1% return for a $1m deposit for 2 years right now) , but that will also mean it'll never be able to achieve a high return even in years when the market is doing well.
Within the past 1 year, the Straits Times index was at a high of 3269.88 but has now fallen to a mere 1697.84, dropping 48%. Those who have invested in the STI stocks on average has been bitten too, even worse than Temasek on a relative basis.
CashBench your future,
http://cashbench.blogspot.com