Singaporean state-owned investor Temasek Holdings Pte, one of the world’s top funds, yesterday said that it would prioritize investments in the US after the “underperformance” of Chinese capital markets over the past year.
Temasek said its net portfolio value rose 1.8 percent in the financial year to March 31, with growth hit by sluggish Chinese markets.
That compared with a 5.2 percent decline the previous year for one of the world’s top 10 investors.
Photo: Bloomberg
It said its net holdings stood at S$389 billion (US$288 billion), up from S$382 billion.
Temasek was taking a cautious stance on China after that “underperformance,” while the US would “continue to be the largest destination of our capital,” executives said in a presentation of the company’s financial report.
It said the Americas region accounted for 22 percent of its global exposure, the largest outside Singapore, but did not give a breakdown for the US.
“We have to position our portfolio for the future, bearing in mind the geopolitical environment as well as the relative competitiveness of each of the economies,” Temasek deputy chief executive officer Chia Song Hwee (謝松輝) said. “That’s the reason why ... we talked about us allocating more capital to the different markets like the US at least in the next 12-18 months.”
Temasek chief financial officer Png Chin Yee (方靜儀) said it remained “underweight” in the US market.
“We see the US as a very deep market with lots of innovation and so that’s a good place for our capital to be,” Png said.
Temasek, with a global footprint extending well beyond the city-state, said that its one-year total shareholder return came in at 1.6 percent, reversing the negative-5.07 percent the previous year.
Its 10-year and 20-year returns were 6.0 and 7.0 percent respectively.
Temasek has stakes in companies such as Singapore Airlines Ltd and the city-state’s biggest lender, DBS Group Holdings Ltd.
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