Temasek Cautiously Optimistic For Next Few Years

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah SINGAPORE, July 8 (Bernama) -- Singapore state investment firm, Temasek Holdings, is cautiously optimistic for the next few years, said its Senior Managing Director of Investment, Ravi Lambah. "The US economic recovery, while uneven at times, remains on track. In China, the growth is taking place at a more sustainable rate," he said at a press conference here Tuesday. Senior Managing Director, Enterprise Development Group, Neil McGregor, said while the company's portfolio has benefited from the favourable global environment for equities, it remained vigilant, given the continued policy and regulatory risks around the world. Temasek on Tuesday announced an increase in its net portfolio value to a record S$266 billion as of March 31, 2015, up S$43 billion from the previous year. In a statement on Tuesday, Temasek said the amount was more than double the portfolio value of $103 billion, 10 years ago. It said the Total Shareholder Return (TSR) was at 19.20 per cent, underpinned by strong performances of its Singapore and China portfolios. "We ended the year in a net cash position and our three-year TSR was 9.62 per cent. Longer term 10-year and 20-year TSRs were at nine per cent and seven per cent respectively. TSR since our inception in 1974 was 16 per cent," it said. Temasek's net profit for the year ending Mar 31 stood at S$14.5 billion, up from S$11 billion, the year before. "We made S$30 billion of new investments and a record S$19 billion of divestments. "About half of our new investments are in Asia followed by North America and Europe markets," it said. Overall, Temasek said Singapore remained its largest country exposure by underlying assets, at 28 per cent of its total portfolio in March this year. Within Asia, Temasek said, it has been steadily increasing its exposure to China, which was 27 per cent of its portfolio as of March 2015. --BERNAMA