Singapore's state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings will reduce its exposure to Western nations after suffering massive losses amid the global financial crisis, its chief executive said. To balance risks and growth, Temasek will give greater importance to Asia and keep an eye out for new opportunities around the world, Ho Ching said in a speech released online Friday.
The firm will trim its exposure to members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - which groups industrialised countries - from 30 percent of its portfolio to 20 percent, she said. Temasek's Asian regional portfolio will stay at 40 percent, while Singapore investments will remain at 30 percent.
Temasek will add new areas such as Latin America, Russia and Africa where its collective exposure will be 10 percent, said Ho, the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in a speech on Tuesday.
Ho repeated earlier data showing that the market value of Temasek's global portfolio as of November 30, 2008 stood at 127 billion Singapore dollars (86.6 billion US), down 31 percent, from 185 billion dollars in March that same year. She said the current financial crisis has set back the value of Temasek's portfolio by to March 2006 levels.
Temasek suffered heavy losses from an investment in US bank Merrill Lynch, which was bought by Bank of America on January 1 following last year's shake-up in the US financial market due to a housing mortgage crisis. Temasek lost about 4.6 billion US dollars from that investment after selling its entire stake in Bank of America, Dow Jones Newswires said Friday, quoting unnamed sources.
Singapore's other investment vehicle, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, had also suffered losses from investments in Swiss bank UBS and US banking giant Citigroup, both of which were shaken by the financial upheaval. In her speech, Ho said Temasek has been reassessing its long-term investments in a bid to balance its exposure between growth and risks.