"I am dismayed that we in Singapore have decided to impose this practice on listed companies," said the chairman of government investment arm Temasek Holdings, Suppiah Dhanabalan, at a conference. "We seem to have tilted in favour of traders in stocks rather than investors in stocks."

Dhanabalan's remarks, which came in a speech at the Asian Conference on Corporate Governance here, were surprising because Temasek holds stakes in companies that already have switched to quarterly reporting. In addition, Singapore officials rarely speak out against government policy -- in this case a mandate that most listed companies must report on a quarterly basis as of January next year.

There's been a backlash against quarterly reporting -- which is standard in the United States -- after a series of scandals exposed corporate greed and an extremely short-term focus on managing a company's performance. Britain earlier this year axed a plan to require quarterly reporting.

But not everybody agreed with Dhanabalan. The more financial information investors have, the better, the reasoning goes.

"Business conditions have generally become more volatile and the fact is that a company's performance can change quite rapidly. I think it is a good idea to keep investors informed on a regular basis," said Richard Margolis, consultant with Merrill Lynch and a member of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, who also spoke at the conference.

Dhanabalan said there was no contradiction in pushing for further transparency and maintaining a system of half-yearly reporting.

"Transparency is due to content and not due to greater frequency, so your half-yearly annual reports must have a lot of detail," he said.

The former cabinet minister is a man to be reckoned with in Singapore's corporate world. He heads Temasek, which takes a proactive role in companies under its charge including appointing board directors. The agency holds sizeable stakes some 40 Singapore corporations with an estimated market capitalisation of about S$70 billion (US$40 billion).

Its investment style is different from that of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, which mostly is a passive investor in overseas firms and assets and manages the country's foreign reserves of more than $100 billion.

Included in the Temasek stable are some of the largest listed companies including national carrier Singapore Airlines Ltd and Southeast Asia's largest bank, DBS Group Holdings Ltd .

Management should be focusing on the business of the company, rather than on its stock price, Dhanabalan said.

"Having a system that encourages the market to set quarterly targets, and that beats the stock up or down according to penny variations from the target, does not seem to me to encourage investment," he said.

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