New Private-Equity Fund Targets Deals In China

From The Wall Street Journal, Feb 4 2008.

By RICK CAREW
February 4, 2008; Page C3

HONG KONG — Two senior Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bankers are teaming up to run a new $2 billion private-equity fund aimed at landing big deals in China.

Richard Ong, Goldman’s co-head of investment banking in Asia excluding Japan, who is leaving the Wall Street firm in March, plans to work with Goldman’s China partner, Fang Fenglei, on the new venture, called the Hopu Fund, according to people familiar with the situation. Both bankers are keeping close ties to Goldman, and the investment bank is planning to put around $300 million of its own money into the fund.

Singapore GIC to buy hotel from Morgan Stanley-paper

From Reuters, Feb 3 2008

TOKYO, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) is set to buy a luxury hotel in Tokyo from Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for around 77 billion yen ($723 million), the Nikkei financial daily said on Sunday.

In a deal likely to be completed late this month, Singapore’s largest sovereign wealth fund will buy both the land and the building of the Westin Tokyo, located in the city’s central Ebisu district, the newspaper said.

Singapore’s GIC to buy Westin Hotel Tokyo for 723 mln dlrs.

From TODAY, Feb 3 2008 and Yahoo News

The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) has agreed to buy the Westin Tokyo luxury hotel for 77 billion yen (723 million dollars) from Morgan Stanley, a newspaper said Sunday.

The parties have reached a basic accord on the purchase of the land and the building located in Tokyo’s high-end residential and commercial district of Ebisu, the Nikkei business daily said.

Singapore’s DBS Takes Over Failed Taiwan Bowa Bank

From Reuters, Feb 1 2008

By Faith Hung and Saeed Azhar

TAIPEI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s DBS Group (DBSM.SI: Quote, Profile, Research) will receive T$44.5 billion (US$1.4 billion) from Taiwan’s government to take over failed Bowa Commercial Bank, the government said on Friday, in the latest acquisition by a foreign bank in the island’s crowded financial sector.

Singapore’s GIC ups Friends Provident stake to 1 pct

From Reuters, Jan 31 2008

SINGAPORE, Jan 31 (Reuters) – The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) has raised its stake in UK insurer Friends Provident (FP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) to just over 1 percent, according to a disclosure statement made on Thursday.

Singapore GIC buys into Manila’s Pepsi -paper

From Reuters, Jan 30 2008

MANILA, Jan 31 (Reuters) – The Government of Singapore Investment Corp has bought a 9.5 percent stake in the initial public offering of Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc., a local newspaper reported on Thursday.

The Philippine Star, quoting stock market sources, said GIC invested in the IPO of Pepsi Bottling Group’s (PBG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) exclusive licenced bottler in Manila.

Company officials and underwriters of the issue were unable to immediately confirm the report. GIC did not immediately comment on the report.

GIC buys 9.5% stake in Philippine firm, Pepsi-Cola Products

From Channel NewsAsia, Jan 31 2008

SINGAPORE: The Government of Singapore Investment Corp, or GIC, has bought a 9.5 per cent stake in the Philippine firm Pepsi-Cola Products.

A GIC spokesperson confirmed this when contacted by Channel NewsAsia.

In its initial public offering, Pepsi-Cola Products offered 1.14 billion shares to investors, priced at 3.5 Philippine pesos each.

Singapore’s GIC says able to bail out another bank: newspaper

From AFP, Jan 30 2008

SINGAPORE (AFP) — The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), fresh from multi-billion-dollar capital injections into troubled global financial institutions, has the capacity for an additional bailout, a report said Wednesday.

“We will look at any deal that is shown to us. We have a duty to do so. We would still have the capacity if we find it worthwhile to invest,” The Business Times quoted Tony Tan, GIC’s deputy chairman and executive director, as saying.

Earlier this month GIC said it would invest 6.88 billion US dollars in US banking giant Citigroup, whose finances have been battered by a US housing slump.

Temasek raises Standard Chartered stake to 19 percent

From AFP, Jan 30, 2008

SINGAPORE (AFP) — Singapore’s state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings has raised its stake in Standard Chartered to 19 percent, a notice posted on the bank’s website said.

Temasek’s holdings have risen by one percent from the previously-held 18 percent, according to the notice dated Monday.

The additional stake was worth 228 million pounds (453 million US dollars), according to an AFP calculation based on the bank’s closing share price the day of the transaction.

Singapore PM ‘transparency isn’t everything’

From The Telegraph, 27 Jan 2008,

By Mark Kleinman

The PM of Singapore is a staunch defender of its wealth funds – but does not want a free press. He talked to Mark Kleinman in Davos

Is Lee Hsien Loong the most powerful man on Wall Street? The prime minister of Singapore might dismiss the idea, but the recent humbling of the world’s most powerful financial institutions suggests it may not be as absurd as it sounds.

Injections of $9.31bn, $6.88bn and $5bn into UBS, Citigroup and Merrill respectively have helped cement Singapore‘s place on the global financial map and triggered a new wave of recriminations over the power and transparency of government-backed investment funds. Yet even as economists hail the migration of financial clout from West to East, the most powerful man in Singapore is more circumspect.