Temasek - A house of cards

[scroobal]

Though one can accept that no fund can get it right all the time, it would make sense if an independent entity can be engaged to examine some of these investment in the area of due diligence. ABC learning is a case in point.

There is also has to be way to reassure the citizens that it is well run and in good hands. This is public funds.

The fact that a stat board had adverse ratings from an external audit for a number of years is a massive red flag. What was auditor general doing? What was parliament doing?

 

[GoldenDragon]

Though one can accept that no fund can get it right all the time, it would make sense if an independent entity can be engaged to examine some of these investment in the area of due diligence. ABC learning is a case in point.

There is also has to be way to reassure the citizens that it is well run and in good hands. This is public funds.

The fact that a stat board had adverse ratings from an external audit for a number of years is a massive red flag. What was auditor general doing? What was parliament doing?

Pardon my ignorance. Any other first world country have something similar to our Temasek?

 

[greenies]

But he's not in parliament and unlikely to make it there.

Then, we should elect him to parliament in next GE.

 

[po2wq]

... What was auditor general doing? What was parliament doing?

all dose burgers were waiting 4 a signal from ah loon ...

n den dey took a rook @ ah loonz direction n saw his tis xpression ...

<img src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/2VprCeWW9cPgvinQKcIMow--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/news/2014-03-24/b1002c60-b324-11e3-98ff-e90a1645dfa8_FBgrab-pmleeinstagram.jpg"></img>

 

[scroobal]

Lots of countries have sovereign funds but there is none in the first World where the CEO is married to the boss. Norway probably has the best managed sovereign funds and its one reason why it citizens will die happy in retirement as everything is taken cared of. They are proud of it.

When public funds are involved it is common sense and good manners to avoid conflict of interest of any sort. A sovereign fund is the apex of all holdings of public funds.

The Middle east have substantial sovereign funds but they are not democracies. They are basically kingdoms and emirates. Naturally it is sun by a member of the royal family.

Pardon my ignorance. Any other first world country have something similar to our Temasek?

 

[scroobal]

The decision to hire him caught many by surprise. It was put down to international pressure but it was a short-lived episode. They must have thought that like the 2 Aussies who run the Thai King's conglomerate, Chip will do what he was told.

Chip GY was just a distraction.
Back then Whore Jinx wayang and announce stepping down.
Then came and when Chip GY.....then Whore Jinx continued in top post.
Then everything forgotten....wayang achieved its objectives. Case closed.

 

[escher]

What other fucking rubbish will you all have being stuffed down your throats and up your arseholes?

Smear of shit on sole of shoe LKY is massively stealing the money of stinkies and being aided in that crime by all his PAP collaborators.
The scale of their thieving beyond comprehension.

Once you buggers know the fucking extent, you think what I say about piano wire is mild as that go only on collaborators.

ONCE YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THEY STOLE, YOU ALL WANT NOT JUST COLLABORATORS, YOU WANT THEIR ENTIRE FAMILIES TO DANCE UNDER THE LAMP POSTS

 

[GoldenDragon]

Lots of countries have sovereign funds but there is none in the first World where the CEO is married to the boss. Norway probably has the best managed sovereign funds and its one reason why it citizens will die happy in retirement as everything is taken cared of. They are proud of it.

When public funds are involved it is common sense and good manners to avoid conflict of interest of any sort. A sovereign fund is the apex of all holdings of public funds.

The Middle east have substantial sovereign funds but they are not democracies. They are basically kingdoms and emirates. Naturally it is sun by a member of the royal family.

Thank you.

 

[God Meng Seng]

Lot of non descript companies in that portfolio....wonder if they had the foresight to invest in apple, amazon, google, facebook....

Im guessing.....naaah.

And did you? Did you buy Apple at $5 a share? Google when it was still $120? FB when it traded down to $30?

If you didn't you have no right to judge others. Hindsight is 20/20.

 

[Merl Haggard]

Lots of countries have sovereign funds but there is none in the first World where the CEO is married to the boss. Norway probably has the best managed sovereign funds and its one reason why it citizens will die happy in retirement as everything is taken cared of. They are proud of it.

When public funds are involved it is common sense and good manners to avoid conflict of interest of any sort. A sovereign fund is the apex of all holdings of public funds.

The Middle east have substantial sovereign funds but they are not democracies. They are basically kingdoms and emirates. Naturally it is sun by a member of the royal family.

You'll be surprised how fucking audacious she is!

In 2004 when her husband was about to assume the premiership, the bitch invited Quek Leng Chan (vendor of Dao Heng Bank to DBS) to Temasek Club Chinese restaurant for dinner and negotiated with QLC to employ her useless younger brother H Seng as the CEO of Hong Leong Credit in KL.

Initial monthly salary was agreed at S$40,000 plus a chauffer driven Mercedes and a bungalow. Eventually the offer was not taken up because H Seng's wife couldn't live with the traffic congestion in KL.

Arsehole Seng is now working as a GM of QLC's Guocoland based in Singapore.

If the brazen bitch is so shameless, daring and reckless, can you believe that she was not rewarded for all those multi-billion Dollar loss making deals?

 

[kukubird58]

Lots of countries have sovereign funds but there is none in the first World where the CEO is married to the boss. Norway probably has the best managed sovereign funds and its one reason why it citizens will die happy in retirement as everything is taken cared of. They are proud of it.
.

hahaha.....Norway is a rich country simply because of its oil & gas resources...
though the people are paid well it has one of the highest cost of living, VAT and personal tax rate in the world...
end result if u have done business with Norwegian company, u will be amaze at their high prices and manhour rates....and they losing their competitiveness in many areas..
if u have stayed/been to Norway, u will know that the empty vessels and frogs in the wells are barking the wrong trees about cost of living...

another interesting thing about Norway/Oslo is that their buildings/offices are kept brightly lit at night even when nobody is working.....
no thanks to their abundance hydro-electric power capacities where it makes more economical sense to do so....

 

[GoldenDragon]

You'll be surprised how fucking audacious she is!

In 2004 when her husband was about to assume the premiership, the bitch invited Quek Leng Chan (vendor of Dao Heng Bank to DBS) to Temasek Club Chinese restaurant for dinner and negotiated with QLC to employ her useless younger brother H Seng as the CEO of Hong Leong Credit in KL.

Initial monthly salary was agreed at S$40,000 plus a chauffer driven Mercedes and a bungalow. Eventually the offer was not taken up because H Seng's wife couldn't live with the traffic congestion in KL.

Arsehole Seng is now working as a GM of QLC's Guocoland based in Singapore.

If the brazen bitch is so shameless, daring and reckless, can you believe that she was not rewarded for all those multi-billion Dollar loss making deals?

She is worse than a prostitute. We need to kick out his wife - Pinky. No other way to get rid of the Lees.

 

[Leongsam]

hahaha.....Norway is a rich country simply because of its oil & gas resources...
though the people are paid well it has one of the highest cost of living, VAT and personal tax rate in the world...

The dumb and the ignorant criticise the Singapore govt at their own peril. They don't realise that Singapore has ZERO natural resources and that the country had to be built from scratch by LKY and his team.

Pretty much EVERYTHING that you see around you on that magnificent island is the result of the astute policies of the PAP. Without them, Singapore would be a backwater today.

 

[3_M]

This is the kind of questions MP's are elected and paid (by taxpayers monies) to ask.

WP should assign someone with financial/legal knowledge (eg Chen Shao Mao) to specialise in Temasek/GIC/CPF and ask questions that will make LKY challenge him to repeat outside Parliament.
Getting bogged down in organising trade fairs while billions of taxpayers monies are lost is simply not doing justice to people who cast votes for them.

CSM specialization is in corporate law. The closest person I can think of was Eric Tan who unfortunately resigned.

Don't think WP has anyone with such expertise to take on PAP.

 

[scroobal]

This is grade one corruption. You buy from the vendor and you want the vendor to get a job for your brother. Now the Malaysians have us over a barrel on how corrupt the family is.

40 years ago her father in law refused to give QLC's uncle a banking licence.

And we charge a some civil servant for having his dick sucked for corruption.

You'll be surprised how fucking audacious she is!

In 2004 when her husband was about to assume the premiership, the bitch invited Quek Leng Chan (vendor of Dao Heng Bank to DBS) to Temasek Club Chinese restaurant for dinner and negotiated with QLC to employ her useless younger brother H Seng as the CEO of Hong Leong Credit in KL.

Initial monthly salary was agreed at S$40,000 plus a chauffer driven Mercedes and a bungalow. Eventually the offer was not taken up because H Seng's wife couldn't live with the traffic congestion in KL.

Arsehole Seng is now working as a GM of QLC's Guocoland based in Singapore.

If the brazen bitch is so shameless, daring and reckless, can you believe that she was not rewarded for all those multi-billion Dollar loss making deals?

 

[kukubird58]

Though one can accept that no fund can get it right all the time, it would make sense if an independent entity can be engaged to examine some of these investment in the area of due diligence. ABC learning is a case in point.

There is also has to be way to reassure the citizens that it is well run and in good hands. This is public funds.

hahaha.....there are internationally recognised CRAs (credit rating agencies) in the world......S&P, Moody's; etc..
what are their credit ratings for Temasek???? junk status????
but then again u will claim that u know more than them...u are the bestest lol.

 

[eatshitndie]

The dumb and the ignorant criticise the Singapore govt at their own peril. They don't realise that Singapore has ZERO natural resources and that the country had to be built from scratch by LKY and his team.

Pretty much EVERYTHING that you see around you on that magnificent island is the result of the astute policies of the PAP. Without them, Singapore would be a backwater today.

agree. we have a bunch of very malicious rumor-mongers on sbf who are spreading lies about temasek. i am refuting the misinformation and lies in my retort here:

http://singsupplies.com/showthread.php?178292-Ho-Jinx-Sets-Up-40M-Fund-to-Help-Foreigners

post #2.

 

[scroobal]

Temasek's chief, Ho Ching, likes to take risks
By Sara Webb
Published: Friday, July 27, 2007

SINGAPORE — One of the colleagues of Ho Ching once said it was her willingness to take risks, not her family ties, that won the wife of the prime minister her top job at Temasek Holdings with a mandate to shake up Singapore's state investor.

That penchant for risk-taking came to the fore this week with Temasek's unexpected £2.1 billion, or $4.34 billion, investment in Barclays, the U.K. bank that is locked in an increasingly costly bidding war for ABN AMRO in what would be the world's biggest bank takeover.

The investment is one of many big deals engineered by Ho, who keeps a low profile despite her prominence in financial circles and as a member by marriage of the first family of Singapore.

Since taking the helm at Temasek in 2002, Ho has stepped up the diversification of the fund beyond its small home market. Her goal: a portfolio split with about a third invested in Singapore, a third elsewhere in Asia and the rest in developed economies.

But while Temasek is regarded as the Asian standard-bearer among increasingly prominent sovereign funds, its hefty $86 billion size and government links have helped provoke opposition to investments in nearby Thailand and Indonesia.

The Temasek-led $3.8 billion investment last year in the Thai telecom firm Shin, which was owned by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has lost about one third of its stock market value. Shin's sale helped to trigger a prolonged political crisis in Bangkok.

Temasek's investment in Indonesia's PT Indosat has also come under attack, in part because Temasek-linked companies are big investors in the country's telecom sector. Temasek says it is not involved in any anti-competitive business practices.

"Temasek's declared strategy of aiming for one third of its assets in OECD countries assumes even more salience now, given the sensitivities experienced in recent years in Thailand and Indonesia," said Garry Rodan, director of Murdoch University's Asia Research Center in Perth, Australia.

The Barclays investment "is in line with Temasek's desire for balance between markets with differing degrees of risk," he said.

When Ho, an engineer by training, joined Temasek, she quickly brought in a host of deal-makers to scour Asia for targets and began to publish an annual review of the firm's performance.

Among the results: some $5 billion invested in Chinese state banks has paid off handsomely so far, with shares in China Construction Bank up two-and-a-half times since its IPO, and Bank of China up 40 percent.

In overall performance, Temasek has kept pace with benchmarks such as the Straits Times Index and MSCI indices.

The most recent available figures, for the year ending March 31, 2006, show Temasek's one-year total shareholder return by market value was 24 percent, the same as for the STI and 2 percentage points higher than a weighted MSCI index for Singapore, the World and Asia-Pacific except Japan.

Over five years, Temasek's shareholder return averaged 10 percent, matching the MSCI index but below the STI's 13 percent.

From 2003 to 2005, Temasek paid an average annual dividend of 1.3 billion Singapore dollars, or $858 million, to its shareholder, the Finance Ministry.

Some in the financial community warn that Temasek's strategy of buying big chunks of companies exposes it to potentially deep losses if markets turn.

"Temasek's strategy is similar to that of a big private equity investor and could well end up producing lower returns than the big index-tracking funds," said a former adviser to the firm. "You just can't become George Soros or Warren Buffett overnight."

Ho tends to avoid the media and has made few comments on Shin. When she addressed a Morgan Stanley conference in November 2006, with the Shin deal in the limelight, the bank told the media not to ask questions.

Even her age is considered off limits. A Temasek spokesman was unwilling to reveal her age or date of birth, although a Temasek bond document in 2005 said she was 52.

Ho began her career at the Ministry of Defense, where she met her husband, Lee Hsien Loong, the eldest son of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. While Lee took up a variety of cabinet positions, Ho moved to state-owned Singapore Technologies in 1987, running a mix of defense, technology, property and stock brokerages that she restructured, divesting some units and listing others.

Temasek's chairman, S. Dhanabalan, a former cabinet minister, asked her to head Temasek in 2002, telling local media at the time that Ho was "the best person for the job," that it had "nothing to do" with her being Lee's wife, and citing "a willingness on her part to take calculated risks."

Dhanabalan even referred to ST's purchase of disk drive maker Micropolis, which was liquidated soon afterwards with debts of 630 million Singapore dollars, saying Ho had had the courage to cut the losses.

 

[Leongsam]

Dhanabalan even referred to ST's purchase of disk drive maker Micropolis, which was liquidated soon afterwards with debts of 630 million Singapore dollars, saying Ho had had the courage to cut the losses.

It's easy to take risks and cut losses when the money you're playing with wasn't from your own hard work.

 

[Papsmearer]

Source: wikipedia

Instead, Ho Ching continued in the position, while Goodyear stepped down on 15 August 2009."

Did Chip Goodyear spooked by something overwhelming?

QUOTE]

Here's the inside story. Highlights in bold.

Temasek abandons plan to install Chip Goodyear as chief executive

Former BHP Billiton boss quits job with Singapore's state investment fund three months before he was to take over
Richard Wachman
The Guardian, Tuesday 21 July 2009 16.35 BST

Plans to appoint Chip Goodyear, the former BHP Billiton mining boss, as chief executive of Singaporean investment company Temasek have been scrapped.

Goodyear has resigned after a boardroom bust-up, just three months before he was due to take over from Ho Ching, wife of the Singaporean prime minister.

In a joint statement, Temasek and Goodyear said that they accepted that "there are differences regarding certain strategic issues that could not be resolved. In light of the differences, both parties have decided that it is in their mutual interest to terminate the leadership transition process."

Temasek, which controls assets worth $84bn, declined to elaborate, but sources close to the company said that Goodyear had resigned when it became clear that he would not be granted the freedom of action that he sought following his appointment in March.
Goodyear has been on the board since March and was due to become CEO in October.

Analysts in Singapore claimed that Goodyear had been squeezed out by Ho Ching, who was reluctant to leave, despite a Temasek statement five months ago saying that she was to be replaced by Goodyear.

Goodyear has been working at Temasek's headquarters in Singapore, but is thought to have grown increasingly frustrated at the investment company's bureaucratic structure.

Although it is nominally independent of government, Temasek has traditionally been viewed as an arm of the Singaporean state and symbol of the country's growing economic power.

But that power has been capped by the financial crisis and Temasek earlier this year reported that the value of investments had fallen by over 30%, causing consternation and anger among local politicians.

At that point, Temasek appeared to bow to public pressure by announcing that Ho Ching would step down this August and be replaced by Goodyear, who took over from Brian Gilbertson at BHP in 2003. He was born in the US and is a former investment banker.

But with just a few months to go until Goodyear was due to take the helm, it had become increasingly clear that Ho Ching had no plans to leave her post, and that her stance was supported by government.

The Singaporean establishment had never been happy that Temasek would be headed by an outsider, according to analysts.

Temasek owns 19% of Standard Chartered bank, but recently booked losses on holdings in Barclays and Merrill Lynch, which was taken over by Bank of America at the height of the banking collapse.

Another theory circulating about Goodyear's departure is that he was unable to persuade the board about the value of investing in mining and resources, his area of expertise. A move into mining might have jeopardised Singapore's growing relationship with China, which is looking to acquire mining assets to fuel its economic expansion.

But sources close to the government of Singapore said that there had been "a clash of cultures." Temasek's chairman, Suppiah Dhanabalan, said: "A future CEO has to be someone who understands and shares our values, and who is also a builder of people, institutions and opportunities. Unfortunately, at this halfway mark, both the board and Chip have come to the conclusion that it is in our mutual interest not to proceed with the planned leadership change."

Goodyear said in a statement: "I'm really sorry that we are unable to continue with the leadership transition. Temasek has a fantastic platform and I wish Ho Ching and the board all the best."

Once tipped as a future chairman of BP, Goodyear joined the Australian-based group BHP in 1999 as chief financial officer and spearheaded its merger with Billiton of South Africa in 2001.