Singapore investment firm Temasek Holdings has sold its stake in British bank Barclays at a loss of £500 million to £600 million (US$815 million to US$978 million), a report said yesterday.
Unnamed officials were quoted by the Straits Times as saying that Temasek had disposed of the shares, estimated at 2 percent, between December and January.
However, the state-linked firm declined to comment.
“It is inappropriate for us to comment on unsourced reports,” a Temasek spokesman said in a statement to wire agencies.
The reported sale followed a statement on Tuesday by an Abu Dhabi state-owned firm that it sold a chunk of its holding in the British lender for a sizeable profit.
International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) sold its shares for a total of £3.5 billion, Credit Suisse Securities said, handing it a gain of £1.5 billion in just seven months.
IPIC said in a statement that it was selling 1.3 billion shares or 13.5 percent of Barclays. The sale leaves IPIC with 5 percent of the bank’s stock.
Temasek sold its stake in the bank at a time many thought it would be brought under British government control as the credit crisis bit and its share price fell. However, Barclays has since recovered.
Temasek and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, the city-state’s other state investment vehicle, poured billions into Western banks but have seen their holdings’ value dive as they were hit by the global economic crisis.
Temasek said last month it had sold its stake in Bank of America without giving any details, although industry analysts calculated it lost about US$4.6 billion in the transaction.
Temasek chief executive Ho Ching (何晶) said last month that it would reduce its exposure to Western nations and increase its focus in Asia and other emerging markets such as Latin America and Russia.
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