Singapore's Temasek Holdings Ends Year With Record $178bn Portfolio

Singapore's Temasek Holdings has said that its portfolio size rose 3.7% to a record S$223bn in the 12 months to March 2014.

The fund also reported a net income of S$10.9bn ($8.72bn, £5.12bn, €6.45bn), a tad higher than the preceding year's S$10.6bn.

The state-owned investment firm described the financial year ended March 2014 as its most active year for new investments since the global financial crisis.

TSR Drops

Temasek said its one-year total shareholder return (TSR) hovered at 1.5%, a huge drop when compared to the previous year's 8.9%. The sovereign wealth fund attributed the drop to a weakness in its key Asian markets.

Singapore, China and Australia were the fund's three largest exposures at 31%, 25% and 10% respectively as of 31 March, 2014, and equity markets were down in both Singapore and China over the reporting period.

Temasek's 10-year TSR hovered at 9%, while the TSR since inception, in 1974, was 16%, according to a company statement.

New Investments

Europe and North America accounted for about 40% of the fund's new investments, with underlying exposure to North America and Europe rising to over 14%, up from 12% the previous year.

The top three sectors for investments during the year were financial services, life sciences and energy.

Temasek chairman Lim Boon Heng said in the statement: "...This year has been one of our most active years for new investments – the most active since the Global Financial Crisis – driven by softer Asian markets of interest, as well as the continued recovery of the global economy.

"In the course of the past year, the US tapered its loose monetary stance and China reined in its debt fuelled growth. This bodes well for the longer term, though major central banks will most likely take some years to unwind the massive balance sheet expansions of the past five years."