Temasek expected to report 9% rise in value of investments

Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings is likely to book a record S$300bn ($221bn) for the value of its portfolio, powered by gains in DBS Group and Chinese banks, while it steps up investment in tech start-ups.

At the same time, Temasek is swooping in on opportunistic purchases with its stake buy in Swiss-based airline caterer Gategroup Holding, weeks after an announced a move to buy into Hainan Airlines.

Both companies are part of China’s debt-saddled HNA Group, which has been selling part of its holdings.

Analysts estimate Temasek, the top investor in about a third of companies in Singapore’s Straits Times index, to report a net portfolio value of about S$300bn for the year ended March 31, up about 9% versus a nearly 14% increase to S$275bn a year earlier.

Temasek said that it would give details of its performance this week.

“Last year was a good year across all asset classes and across the world,” CIMB Private Banking economist Song Seng Wun said. “A rise in its portfolio value to above S$300bn is quite doable,” he said.

In June, Temasek and GIC, Singapore’s bigger state fund, featured among main investors in a $14bn fund raising by China’s Ant Financial Services Group. Temasek also put more money into online Chinese services firm Meituan Dianping in 2017.

Meanwhile, MSCI’s Asia shares ex-Japan index advanced 18% in the year to March, while Singapore’s main index rose 8%.

Temasek reports its annual scorecard next week.

Under CEO Ho Ching, the wife of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Temasek has become a global investor, ploughing billions of dollars into start-ups and emerging markets in recent years.

Veljko Fotak, assistant professor of international finance at University at Buffalo in the US, said that despite Temasek’s renewed emphasis on the tech sector, it is “at the same time, keeping its feet well on the ground, investing in real estate and infrastructure worldwide”.

Temasek’s Mapletree Investments in 2017 bought a portfolio of student accommodation properties in North America worth $1.6bn, expanding its exposure to the sector.

Analysts see no let-up in Temasek’s investments in startups, which often attract billiondollar funding as they race to build up war chests to stay competitive.