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

[kennynah]

why the need to have another company?

[-dol-]

Just in case they mess up?

[kennynah]

maybe for taxation purposes...there's an existing ruling that new Pte Ltds are exempt from 3 years of taxation...

[-dol-]

If so, they should just make this set-up tax-exempt for perpetuity in the interest of the public.

[kennynah]

ah....that you are assuming ah gong money is people's money...hmmmm....i'm not very sure about the validity of this assumption...hahaha...

[-dol-]

I was referring to the portion that the people put in to "invest alongside" ah gong - finally, they have kindly made available their world-renowned investing skills for the benefit of the public

I believe many lost sheeps welcome such an avenue after being thrown around in shark-infested waters.

[millionairemind]

GIC sitting on $7.7b loss in UBS stake
05:55 AM Feb 12, 2010
SINGAPORE - The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) may be sitting on as much as $7.7 billion in unrealised losses from its investment in troubled Swiss bank UBS, based on calculations derived from its latest regulatory filing.

The GIC will convert 11 billion Swiss francs ($14.6 billion) worth of its UBS notes into 230.7 million ordinary shares of the bank on March 5, according to a regulatory filing in the United States on Wednesday.

The conversion will reduce the sovereign wealth fund's stake in UBS from an original 9 per cent to 6.6 per cent, the filing stated.

The lowering of the stake had been flagged earlier after GIC opted not to take part in additional funding that saw the Swiss government becoming the lender's biggest shareholder.

The Swiss government divested that stake last August at a 1.2 billion franc profit and GIC is now reportedly the largest shareholder.

According to calculations by Dow Jones and Reuters yesterday, the conversion price for the notes held by GIC will be 47.7 Swiss francs per UBS share, indicating a paper loss of about 71 per cent when compared with UBS' closing price of 13.67 Swiss francs on Wednesday.

Taking into account the 2 billion francs that GIC would get over two years from the 9 per cent annual coupon on the notes, the sovereign wealth fund is in the red to the tune of 5.9 billion francs, or about $7.7 billion at the current exchange rate.

A GIC spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by Today.

The latest news comes just a month after GIC booked losses of as much as US$675 million ($952.4 million) from its exposure to Stuyvesant Town, one of New York's biggest apartment complexes.

[millionairemind]

I was referring to the portion that the people put in to "invest alongside" ah gong - finally, they have kindly made available their world-renowned investing skills for the benefit of the public

I believe many lost sheeps welcome such an avenue after being thrown around in shark-infested waters.

haha.. I got a friend who invested alongside our gahmen into Citi back in Jan 2008 when the announcement was made. Back then Citi was $28. He got his at $26 and he was happy about it.

If GIC/Temasek are in it, what can go wrong?

Then he kept averaging down at $20, 18, 15 and then finally 10.

$10 was his last average down price. Now it's still less than $3.5.

[Musicwhiz]

Doesn't make sense to blindly ape Temasek. They have deep pockets. Very deep.

Do normal retail investors have such pockets?

[millionairemind]

Doesn't make sense to blindly ape Temasek. They have deep pockets. Very deep.

Do normal retail investors have such pockets?

Agree. Same thing goes to those who wants to emulate WB.