| Reuters November 16, 2006 SINGAPORE By Sara Webb TEMASEK Holdings, the Singapore government-owned investment firm, plans to raise up to US$150 million from the sale of shares in an Asian infrastructure fund early next year, a source familiar with the deal told Reuters. The fund would be backed by about US$500 million of water and gas assets, and would be a vehicle for investing in Asian infrastructure assets, the source said, adding that Temasek would retain a big stake in the fund after the initial public offering. "The idea would be to buy infrastructure assets with very predictable cash flows, very stable investments," the source said, adding that the fund would not invest in high-risk, greenfield projects. Temasek, which has a portfolio valued at S$129 billion (US$83 billion), has been on an acquisition spree in Asia in a bid to boost its investment returns, and has most recently come under fire for its disastrous $3.8 billion purchase of Thai telecoms group Shin Corp. Ho Ching, Temasek's chief executive officer, on Tuesday told an investor conference organised by Morgan Stanley that she saw interesting opportunities for investing in infrastructure projects in Indonesia, which badly needs to upgrade much of its basic transport and utilities. "We continue to be interested in Indonesia, but it has to compete against other investment destinations such as Vietnam, India and China," Ho told the conference. Temasek owns controlling stakes in many of Singapore's biggest companies including Singapore Telecommunications and DBS Group Holdings, respectively Southeast Asia's biggest telecoms firm and bank. It also owns various utilities and infrastructure- related assets, including electricity and gas supplier Singapore Power, power generation company Tuas Power, electricity generator Senoko Power, and energy group PowerSeraya -- all of which are unlisted. Temasek also has stakes in Keppel Corp and SembCorp Industries, both of which have infrastructure- related businesses. Temasek and its co-investors are sitting on a paper loss of about US$1.5 billion on their investment in Shin, as Shin's share price has fallen sharply since the acquisition in January, while Shin's underlying businesses have suffered. On Friday, Shin reported a 54 percent slump in quarterly earnings to
a four-year low as all core businesses performed weakly. Shin's mobile
phone unit had its lowest quarterly profit since late 2003 and its satellite
division reported its fourth consecutive quarter of losses. |
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