 Temasek says credit crunch to continue
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-27 08:04
Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore's $130 billion sovereign wealth fund, said the global credit crisis will last two more years, drying up investment opportunities and constraining economic growth. "It's going to be very difficult to predict whether we're in the beginning, the middle or the end," Michael Dee, Temasek's senior managing director of international, said yesterday. "From our perspective, what we want to try and do is to be prepared for a range of outcomes." Temasek led investments in Merrill Lynch & Co and Barclays Plc as the credit market collapse erased about $9 trillion from global stocks in the past year, forcing banks to restore depleted capital. Singapore's Finance Ministry, Temasek's only shareholder, injected S$10 billion into the company in April 2007 to help it expand its portfolio amid a slide in asset values. Temasek, which took over state assets including shipyards and an airline three decades ago, said yesterday full-year profit doubled to a record as sales of energy and shipping assets countered slowing returns from stock market investments. Net income rose to S$18.2 billion ($12.8 billion) in the year ended March 31, up from S$9.1 billion, it said in its annual report released yesterday. Temasek sold Tuas Power for S$4.24 billion in March and shares in China Cosco Holdings Co, the world's biggest commodities shipping company. Temasek's portfolio expanded 13 percent to S$185 billion in the year ended March from S$164 billion a year earlier, Chairman S. Dhanabalan said on Aug 21. Agencies (China Daily 08/27/2008 page17) |
