The sovereign wealth fund has slowed its pace of global investments, preferring to focus on its existing portfolio at home and on growing its footprint in India.
Since the second quarter of 2018, when direct equity investments by Temasek peaked at $6.13 billion, the Singapore wealth fund has been spending less on investments abroad and is instead focused on extracting more value from its domestic portfolio, «The Business Times» reported.
An analyst quoted by the newspaper estimated the fund's total public and private equity deals reached this quarter as only $0.88 billion, but this does not include the expected S$3 billion ($2.21 billion) add-on investment in CapitaLand from the acquisition of urban developer Ascendas-Singbridge, expected to be completed by the end of the month.
Focus on Longer-Term Opportunities
Amid global volatility, the fund has been focusing on investments closer to home and on longer-term opportunities, as well as on India. The paper noted the fund had also cut its shareholding in Chinese e-commerce and technology group Alibaba to 27 percent between March 2018 and March 2019.
The acquisition of Temasek subsidiary Ascendas-Singbridge by CapitaLand, of which Temasek owns 40 percent, will release S$3 billion in cash to Temasek and give the fund another $3 billion in shares of the enlarged CapitaLand, BT said.
Temasek also helped bolster the balance sheet of Sembcorp Marine by supporting a S$1.5-billion bond sale by parent Sembcorp Industries last week.
