Singapore - GIC, Temasek & MAS 02 (Sep 09 - Jul 11)

[kennynah]

what a great A team.... we will prosper...

this dhana... amazing man..i remember i used to see him in his marceedee when it cruised by my school ... that was in late 70s.... our indian friend still alive and kicking... must be ayuvedha

[millionairemind]

Nov 24, 2009
Temasek plans to raise $600m

SINGAPORE investment firm Temasek Holdings on Tuesday said it plans to raise $600 million from new bond offerings.

The latest news follows an announcement in October that the firm would raise US$1.5 billion (S$2.1 billion) through a 10-year bond offer under a capital raising programme worth US$5 billion.

Temasek said in a statement the bond offerings, to be made in two tranches of $300 million, would be issued by its wholly owned subsidiary Temasek Financial.

'The issuer intends to provide the net proceeds from the offering to Temasek and its investment holding companies to fund their ordinary course of business,' the investment vehicle said in a statement.

'The notes will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Temasek,' it said.

Temasek said one tranche of the offering would mature in 2029 while the other was due in 2039. -- AFP

[millionairemind]

Banks and sovereign-wealth funds
Falling knives

Dec 10th 2009 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition
The smart and the not-so-smart

YOUR phone rings at 3am. It’s a senior American banker sounding desperate. An unidentified heavy-breather—the treasury secretary?—is also on the line. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, the banker swears: the chance to buy a multibillion-dollar stake in a big Wall Street firm. By the way, he adds breezily, any chance of an answer right away?

Most sovereign-wealth funds (SWFs) got an invitation of this sort between November 2007 and January 2008. Within a few weeks some $40 billion was poured into distressed Western lenders, among them Citigroup, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Now SWFs are selling out. This month the Kuwait Investment Authority, the oldest SWF, sold a $4 billion stake in Citigroup, claiming a $1.1 billion profit. In September one of Singapore’s two investment vehicles, GIC, sold part of its stake in Citi, realising a $1.6 billion profit.

Were SWFs right to buy? They piled in far too soon. It took another year for share prices to hit bottom; despite this year’s rally, they are still below the levels when SWFs invested, typically using convertible stock. Plenty made mistakes: Temasek, Singapore’s other state fund, sold out of Bank of America early this year, probably at a loss. Nor should the near misses be forgotten. In mid-2007 China Development Bank (strictly speaking a firm, not a fund) and Temasek offered to buy $13 billion of Barclays’ shares, at about twice today’s price, if its bid for ABN AMRO succeeded.

The winners fall into two camps. Some waited until prices had fallen further before buying. Qatar’s investment fund and prominent individuals in Qatar and Abu Dhabi participated in Barclays’ capital raisings in June and October last year and have made money. Others negotiated well. Kuwait and GIC invested in Citigroup in January 2008 but the fine print protected them from share-price falls. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, by contrast, invested $7.5 billion in Citi in November 2007 in less secure convertible instruments. It is likely to end up nursing a large loss.

The banking crisis was a baptism of fire. Most SWFs are still keen on strategic investments but only in healthy firms where there is a clearer national interest. About two-thirds of their deals in this quarter have been in natural resources. Gay Huey Evans of Barclays Capital reckons this trend will continue.

[millionairemind]

January 11, 2010, 7.15 pm (Singapore time)

GIC says booked loss from US$675mln Stuyvesant investment

SINGAPORE - The Government of Singapore Investment Corp said on Monday it has already booked losses on its investment in Stuyvesant Town, given the New York apartment complex's debt problems.

'GIC recognised the losses following the ruling by the New York Court of Appeals in October 2009, which precipitated the default,' a spokeswoman for the sovereign wealth fund said in response to a Reuters query.

GIC did not disclose its exposure or say how much it wrote off, although court documents indicate the Singapore fund held US$100 million of equity and US$575 million in mezzanine debt issued by the owner of the Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village complex in Manhatten.

The complex, owned by a joint venture led by Tishman Speyer and BlackRock Inc, on Friday said it missed making a loan repayment, in a move that may trigger a foreclosure.

GIC, estimated to be the world's fourth largest sovereign fund with over US$200 billion in assets, said in September its portfolio shrank by more than a fifth in the year to end-March but had since recouped over half the losses.

About 12 per cent of the fund's portfolio is in real estate.

Stuyvesant Town is the largest apartment complex on Manhatten, housing around 25,000 residents on 80 acres of land.


It was purchased for US$5.4 billion in 2006 near the height of the US housing market but is now worth around US$2 billion.

In October last year, New York's top court ruled that the owners had wrongly tried to remove the apartments from New York City's programme which limits rent increases, in a bid to get higher market-level rents. -- REUTERS

[kennynah]

another one bites the dust....

[millionairemind]

Published January 15, 2010

CIC, Temasek to buy SouthGobi Energy shares in IPO

(HONG KONG) China Investment Corp (CIC), the nation's sovereign wealth fund, and Temasek Holdings Pte will buy shares in SouthGobi Energy Resources Ltd's initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong.

CIC and the Singapore investment company will each invest US$50 million in the share sale, CEO Alexander Molyneux said on a video link from London at a press briefing here yesterday.

SouthGobi, the Vancouver-based coal producer operating in the southern deserts of Mongolia, may raise as much as HK$3 billion (S$537 million) in the share sale, according to a statement released by the company at the briefing. CIC has spent more than US$4 billion on energy and resources investments since last September to hedge against inflation and meet the needs of the world's fasting-growing major economy.

'I don't think you can get better cornerstone investors in an IPO than CIC and Temasek,' said Alisher Djumanov, managing partner at Singapore-based Eurasia Capital Management, which has about US$100 million in investments in Mongolia and Central Asia.

'I think both have recognised the potential for developing energy and resources in Mongolia.'



CIC bought US$500 million of 30-year senior convertible bonds issued by SouthGobi last year. Other energy investments made by the sovereign wealth fund include US$400 million worth of shares in China Longyuan Power Group Corp when the wind-power producer started selling its stock here last month.

SouthGobi started production at its Ovoot Tolgoi mine in the deserts of southern Mongolia last year and aims to use funds raised in the share sale to boost output, improve infrastructure and finance exploration.

The coal producer may spend as much as US$800 million in the next three years to increase output and supply customers in China, Mr Molyneux told reporters on Dec 10.

The company is controlled by Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. Chairman Robert Friedland said last October that the underdeveloped resources of Mongolia could make the north Asian country 'the Saudi Arabia of coal'.

SouthGobi may have made a loss of US$111 million in 2009, the company said in the statement. The energy supplier will be investing heavily to increase production and has no forecast for when it will start making a profit, Mr Molyneux said yesterday.

SouthGobi's plans may include building a 40-kilometre railway track from the Ovoot Tolgoi mine to the border with China. Coal is now trucked to the border by rail and road links.

Ovoot Tolgoi produced 1.2 million tonnes of coal last year and SouthGobi plans to increase this to 8 million tonnes annually by 2012 to supply customers in China, Mr Molyneux said last month.

Mr Friedland said last October that Ivanhoe, through SouthGobi, wants to supply one per cent of China's coal needs within 10 years and is targeting long-term production of 20 million tonnes annually from Mongolia. Rio Tinto Group has a 19.7 per cent stake in Ivanhoe.

SouthGobi's stock will begin trading in Hong Kong on Jan 29. Shares will be priced at a maximum of HK$133.50 each, the company said in the statement. -- Bloomberg

[winston]

Global recovery could surprise on upside -Singapore's GIC

TAIPEI, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The recovery in the global economy could be surprisingly strong in the coming quarters, helped by emerging markets, the deputy chairman of Government of Singapore Investment Corp [GIC.UL] said on Monday.

The global economy is also likely to become more reliant on government policies such as liquidity support and asset purchases, Tony Tan told a forum in Taipei, noting that any withdrawal of such policies could derail the recovery if it is done too early or too sharply.

"The global recovery has generally been stronger than most analysts' expectations and could further surprise on the upside, at least for the next few quarters," Tan said.

He added that developed economies may also see growth, with the United States likely to see moderately strong growth in the first half of this year before slowing, while Europe is likely to benefit from the pickup in global trade.

"The good news is that we appear to have avoided a global depression," Tan said. "The global economy has stabilised and is now recovering." However, he warned that policy makers in emerging markets will have to contend with rising inflation and likely asset price bubbles, challenging governments who have to keep prices in check while not snuffing out the nascent recovery.

"Across the region, we have seen significant rises in equity and real estate prices on the back of domestic reflationary policies and capital inflows supported by low global interest rates," he said.

"These have not in general hit their previous peak, and can be justified by positive fundamentals, but continued low interest rates could push prices higher, and eventually lead to bubbles." GIC, one of the world's largest wealth funds, with assets estimated in excess of $200 billion, holds stakes in financial firms such as UBS and Citigroup .

Source: Reuters

[millionairemind]

Fund its operation?? What kind??

Ah Gong not giving it the keys to CPF savings anymore??

February 8, 2010, 12.36 pm (Singapore time)

Temasek to sell $1b 10-year bonds

By BERNICE BONG

SINGAPORE - Singapore investment company, Temasek Holdings, said on Monday it plans to sell $1 billion 10-year bonds to fund its operations.

Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Temasek Financial, will offer the bonds under its Guaranteed Global Medium Term Note Program.

Temasek is rated AAA by Standard & Poor's and Aaa by Moody's Investors Service, and the Notes are rated AAA by Standard & Poor's and Aaa by Moody's Investors Service.

[kennynah]

now very cheap interest rates mah...low coupon bonds...

who knows, later should the interest rates skyrocket...they can "package" this debt and sell it to debt to someone else...

[iam802]

Temasek Starts Global Investment Company Seatown, Names Ong CEO ((<<< this is a hedge fund))

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... sBEpixCnxo

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Temasek Holdings Pte has set up a wholly owned global investment company run by its chief strategist Charles Ong that will employ a variety of strategies investing in assets ranging from stocks to bonds.

Seatown Holdings Pte, which may manage billions of dollars, will target absolute returns, three people with knowledge of its plan said earlier, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

Temasek, which managed S$172 billion ($121 billion) as of July 31, has transformed from a passive holder of stakes in government-controlled companies to an investor with more than two-thirds of its underlying assets abroad. Chief Executive Officer Ho Ching said in July Singapore’s state investment firm may invite the public to co-invest and seek “sophisticated investors” and retail investors within a decade.

“Hedge funds give them a lot of flexibility in terms of the investment strategies,” said Melvyn Teo, a director at the BNP Paribas Hedge Fund Centre at Singapore Management University. “This would definitely boost returns if they can earn fees and at the same time deliver good returns to investors and to themselves.”

Seatown is a global investment company wholly owned by Temasek, Ong said in an e-mailed statement today, without giving further details.

Temasek already has a fund-management unit, Fullerton Fund Management Co., which invests in hedge funds and other assets such as equities and bonds.

Fullerton

The sovereign wealth fund, which may be trying to attract and retain talent, “might have known more about hedge funds from their experience” with Fullerton, Teo said.

The size of the hedge fund may be $3 billion, AsianInvestor reported on its Web site earlier today, without saying where it got the information.

Nasser Ahmad, co-founder of New York-based DiMaio Ahmad Capital LLC, a hedge-fund firm specializing in credit products, will be Seatown’s co-CEO and Margaret Lui will be chief operating officer.

“We have a small core team seconded from Temasek, and are still in the process of building up the Seatown team,” Jeffrey Fang, a spokesman at Temasek, said in a statement. He declined to provide more details about the new investment company.

Temasek is “exploring the feasibility of creating one more group of stakeholders” by inviting the public to co-invest, Ho said in July. Before doing this, Temasek would first pilot the relevant structures and “rules of engagement” between the state-owned investment company and other sophisticated investors, she said.

Profit Drop

The company has had an annual return of 16 percent since its inception in 1974, according to its annual report in September, down from 18 percent annualized it reported in August 2008.

Its net income fell a record 66 percent to S$6.2 billion in the 12 months ended March 31, 2009, as a collapse in credit markets drove down the value of its stakes in Bank of America Corp. and Barclays Plc. The value of investments, which plunged S$55 billion in the period, rebounded to S$172 billion as of July 31.

Ong joined Temasek in 2002 from Deutsche Bank AG. He started his career as an investment banker with Lazard Freres & Co., according to Temasek’s Web site.

Temasek, which means sea-town in Javanese, is an ancient name of Singapore dating from the 15th century.

Biggest Holder

Temasek, set up to foster the development of Singapore’s banks, airlines and ports, is the biggest shareholder in five of Singapore’s 10 biggest publicly traded companies by market value including Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Southeast Asia’s biggest phone company, and DBS, the region’s largest bank by assets.

Hedge funds had their best annual performance in six years in 2009. The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index, tracking more than 2,000 funds, rose 19 percent in 2009, according to Eurekahedge Pte, a Singapore-based research firm. The annual return was the highest since 2003, when the index rose 21 percent.

Hedge funds are private, largely unregulated pools of capital whose managers can buy or sell any assets, bet on their falling as well as rising values and participate substantially in profits from money invested.