> Only those who are blur blur are any how making predictions.
> This one already decided. It will be Lim Hwee Hua.
Ho Ching, chief investment officer of Temasek Holdings Pte, the
Singapore state-owned investment company, will likely step down in
August, the Financial Times said, citing people familiar with the
matter.
Ho’s departure is expected a month after Temasek releases its annual
review for the year ended March, when it’s expected to post investment
gains, the newspaper said today. That would allow Ho to leave on a
“high note” after eight years, it reported. Jeffrey Fang, a spokesman
for Temasek, declined to comment on the report.
“If there’s any leadership transition, they will know how to manage it
in a way that there will not be too much disruption,” said Ng Soo Nam,
the Singapore-based chief investment officer at Nikko Asset Management
Co., which oversees about $126 billion. “Temasek is more than just Ho
Ching. In the past, where they had leadership transition, they had
always executed smoothly.”
Ho, 58, led Temasek in its record gain in the value of its holdings in
the year ended March 2010 following bets on Asian investments.
Temasek’s assets climbed 43 percent to S$186 billion ($151 billion) in
that year, surpassing the previous peak of S$185 billion reached two
years earlier, the company said in its annual report in July last
year. That offset the previous year’s S$55 billion plunge, when it
posted losses on bank stakes during the financial crisis.
Ho’s possible departure in August will come about two years after she
had first planned to step down. Ho is the wife of Singapore Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Chip Goodyear
In July 2009, Temasek reversed its appointment to replace Ho with
Charles “Chip” Goodyear, the former head of BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP),
citing “differences regarding certain strategic issues.” BHP Billiton
is the world’s largest mining company.
“When they had Goodyear in, and it didn’t work out, they smoothed it
out as well,” Ng said. “They will manage things very carefully. I am
quite confident; that has been the track record.”
Temasek has had an annual return of 17 percent since its inception in
1974, according to the report last year.
In the year ended March 2010, Temasek made S$10 billion in
investments. It spent more than S$3 billion in the financial year
buying additional shares of companies such as Jakarta-based PT Bank
Danamon Indonesia and Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. Temasek’s
participation in rights offerings by companies in its portfolio
bolstered its assets as the shares advanced.
Past Losses
The company sold its stakes in Charlotte, North Carolina- based Bank
of America Corp. and London-based Barclays Plc (BARC) at losses in the
previous year.
Prime Minister Lee was named in May chairman of Government of
Singapore Investment Corp., the city’s sovereign wealth fund that
manages more than $100 billion of the island’s assets, succeeding his
father Lee Kuan Yew. The elder Lee remains as senior adviser, the fund
said.
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