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.

Almost two years ago Temasek dramatically increased its investment in Standard Chartered when it bought 152.4 million shares worth an estimated four billion US dollars from the estate of Khoo Teck Puat, a reclusive Singaporean billionaire who died in 2004.

Prior to that deal Temasek held 0.07 percent in the bank but the deal gave it almost 12 percent.

Standard Chartered is listed in London and Hong Kong.

“We invest where we see value and have capitalised on current market opportunities to increase our shareholding in a strong financial services player,” Simon Israel, Temasek’s executive director, told AFP in a statement on Tuesday.

The latest acquisition adds to Singapore’s increasingly prominent role in global financial circles.

It has stepped in to rescue other firms whose finances have been battered by a US housing slump.

Temasek committed in December to injecting 4.4 billion dollars into US brokerage firm Merrill Lynch.

In the same month, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), custodian of Singapore’s foreign reserves, announced it would invest almost 10 billion dollars in Swiss bank UBS. GIC then said it would pump 6.88 billion dollars into US banking giant Citigroup.

Both GIC and Temasek are sovereign wealth funds, a form of government-created investment vehicle whose newfound market muscle has led to concerns in recipient countries over national security issues and a lack of transparency by the funds.

Temasek’s executive director and chief executive officer is Ho Ching, wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

But Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told parliament last week that the government plays no role in how GIC and Temasek decide their investment policies.