Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore’s state-owned investment firm, exited Facebook Inc, Monsanto Co and Air Products & Chemicals Inc in the third quarter as it pared US stock holdings.
Temasek, directly or through its units, sold 4.3 million shares of social-networking company Facebook, valued at US$107 million in the second quarter ended on June 30, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
Temasek sold 1.42 million shares of seed maker Monsanto and 1.25 million shares of industrial gas producer Air Products.
The investment company exited its positions in the US companies as the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has rallied 25 percent this year, extending records to close at an all-time high of 1,790.62 on Thursday.
“We believe that Temasek’s divestment from many of its US holdings, particularly in the technology sector, during Q3 is indicative of a change of strategy in America,” Institutional Investor’s Sovereign Wealth Center director Victoria Barbary said in an e-mail. “Temasek opened an office in New York earlier in the year and we expect that the fund is looking to make some large direct investments in the world’s largest economy, rather than using small stakes in listed blue-chip companies.”
Temasek’s only new purchase in the quarter ended on Sept. 30 was Chinese medical device manufacturer Mindray Medical International Ltd (邁瑞), which is based in Shenzhen.
The only company in which it added shares was Qualcomm Inc, which makes digital wireless-communications equipment.
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