Temasek Holdings Pte., a Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund, reported the Singapore dollar value of its investment portfolio rose 19.2% to S$266 billion ($193.3 billion) for its fiscal year ended March 31.
In U.S. dollar terms, Temasek reported a smaller 9% gain, reflecting the U.S. currency's appreciation from roughly S$1.26 to S$1.37 over the year.
With the latest results, Temasek has gained an annualized 9.6% in Singapore dollar terms over the past three years, and 9% over the past 10. In U.S. dollar terms, meanwhile, the sovereign wealth fund's gains have been 6% and 11%, respectively.
Png Chin Yee, managing director, investment, at a news conference Tuesday, attributed the latest year's gains to a strong year for the respective equity markets of Singapore and China — Temasek's top two allocations.
As of March 31, China-focused investments accounted for 27% of Temasek's investment portfolio, up from 25% the year before. The latest gain left the sovereign wealth fund's China investments just shy of the 28% invested in Singapore.
Other major investment regions included Australia and North America, with 9% each, and Europe, 8%.
In what was Temasek's most active year since 2008 for both new investments, at S$30 billion, and divestments, at a record S$19 billion, the sovereign wealth fund took advantage of “liquidity-driven rallies” during the fiscal second half to exit some investments, said Ravi Lambah, Temasek's head of telecom, media and technology, as well as co-head of India and co-head of Africa and the Middle East, at the same news conference.
Among them, Temasek sold a 1% stake in its holdings of China Construction Bank and 10% of its holdings in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Mr. Lambah said.
Mr. Lambah said roughly half of Temasek's S$30 billion in new investments went to Asia, and much of the remainder went to the U.S. and Europe, with the pickup in activity — from S$24 billion in new investments the year before — reflecting the investment team's “constructive view of the global economy” for the next several years.
While conceding that China's economy continued to slow down, Wu Yibing, Temasek's head of China, said at the news conference the fund's investment team believed that was leaving the country in a more “sustainable” growth environment, and that China's government retains ample tools to deal with concerns such as credit risk.
Asked about broader concerns that the eventual end of quantitative easing policies by leading developed markets central banks would create unprecedented economic uncertainties, Temasek executives expressed confidence that their long-term, bottom-up approach to investing would allow them to weather any storms.
