The move to publicly release the annual report for the current financial year ending on March 31 comes amid a broader push by the company to demystify its operations as it seeks to expand throughout Asia.

"We plan to publish an annual report in July or August," Eva Ho, Temasek's director of corporate communications, told AFP.

"It will be the first time that we are probably making it available to a large audience. We have always had annual reports but it (has had a) restricted circulation."

The finance ministry and board directors are among those who have previously been given the firm's annual report.

Temasek has revealed little publicly about its investments since its establishment in 1974 but that has begun to change following the appointment of Ho Ching as executive director in 2002.

Under Ho, the wife of Singapore's leader-in-waiting, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, efforts to shed more light on Temasek have accelerated in recent months.

Last month, Ho revealed in a policy speech that Temasek would move towards greater transparency by opening up its books to get a credit rating.

"This will be part of a measured process of opening up and demystifying Temasek," she said in the speech which surprised many observers because it contained details normally not shared with the public.

Ho also revealed the financial returns Temasek has made on its investments over the past 10 years.

She said the company achieved a compounded annual return of more than 16 percent on its investments and had a dividend yield of seven percent annually over the past 10 years.

There are also plans for Temasek to borrow for the first time in the financial markets, a move that would require the investment arm to open its books to an external ratings agency to get a credit rating.

Analysts have said the move towards greater transparency was necessary as Temasek stepped up its investment in Asia.

It would help shake off the perceptions the company is a secretive state firm pursuing an investment agenda on behalf of the Singapore government, something which Temasek has said it is not.

Temasek's regional portfolio has expanded over the past year. It recently joined forces with Germany's Deutsche Bank in a winning bid for a 51 percent stake in Indonesia's fifth largest lender, Bank Danamon, valued at 350 million US dollars.

In December it bought a 5.2 percent stake in India's largest private lender, ICICI Bank, worth an estimated 200 million dollars.

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