SINGAPORE (July 7): Temasek Holdings Pte’s assets jumped to an all-time high as the Singapore state-investment firm benefited from gains in global equity markets.

The value of Temasek’s holdings increased 19 percent to a record S$266 billion ($197 billion) during the 12 months ended March 31, compared with S$223 billion in the previous year and more than double a decade ago, the firm said in its annual report Tuesday. It made S$30 billion of new investments and a record S$19 billion of divestments, taking advantage of liquidity driven market rallies.

Chief Executive Officer Ho Ching, who has been on a sabbatical since April, oversaw an increase in investments in China and recovering economies in North America and Europe. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 10% and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index jumped 19% in the year to the end of March, while the MSCI China Index rallied 20%.

“This was the most active year for us since the global financial crisis,” Temasek Chairman Lim Boon Heng said in the statement.

The total shareholder return, including dividends, increased to 19.2% from 1.5% in the previous fiscal year.

The total shareholder return averaged 16% since inception in 1974. It was 9.6% over three years, it said.

“The internationalization of Temasek’s equity portfolio is bearing fruit,” Sven Behrendt, managing director at Geneva- based GeoEconomica, which researches sovereign wealth funds, said before the results were released. “They are becoming an increasingly important global player as opposed to their previous focus on Asia and especially Singapore.”

Consumer, Life Sciences
Founded in 1974, it originally owned shares in former state-owned companies and began directly investing in foreign equities in 2002.

The value of its new investments was the highest in seven years at the end of March and focused on consumer, financial services and life sciences and agriculture, it said. Almost half of the new portfolio additions were in developing Asia, followed by North America and Europe.

The state firm’s divestments included the sale of Hong Kong-listed shares of China Construction Bank Corp. Temasek ended the year with an undisclosed net cash position.

Singapore remained Temasek’s largest country exposure at 28%, though it narrowed from 31% of its portfolio previously, the investment firm said. Temasek is the biggest shareholder in about a third of the 30 members in the Straits Times Index, including Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. The index gained 8.1% in the year to March 31.

China Exposure
Investments in the rest of Asia rose to 42% of assets from 41%.

They climbed to 17% from 14% in North America and Europe. In North America, Temasek continued to invest in life sciences, including in biotechnology company BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Its European investments included Deutsche Post DHL, an international logistics company, and engineering company Gaztransport & Technigaz SA, a global provider of membrane design for LNG transport and storage.

Temasek said it increased its exposure to China to 27% and broadened its investments from earlier ones in banks to include insurance, consumer and technology companies, which are likely to benefit from the shift in the Chinese economy to become more reliant on consumer spending.

Financial services accounted for 28% of its assets as of March 31, compared to 30% in the previous year, according to the statement.

Unlike GIC Pte, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, Temasek almost exclusively invests in equities and has few restrictions on how much it can hold. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, isn’t allowed to own more than 10% of any of its portfolio companies and seeks to have no more than 60% of its portfolio in equities.

Temasek had 67% of its portfolio in listed assets as of March, down from 70% in the previous year, according to the statement.