TEMASEK Holdings' chief executive Ho Ching is the only woman in Asia to feature in the top 10 of Forbes magazine's fifth annual list of the world's most powerful women.

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Is she an independant?

Lend me your ears, isn't it?

Nonsense and unqualified. With all her blunders she is still no. 8. What a joke isn't it?

#3

What blunders r u refering to??

U see .... the rich and powerful will only get to be more so... but where does that leave us PM Lee?

#5

What do u want PM Lee to do for u? make u rich and powerful???

#6

Why should he? Are you in that class? If not, fat chance. And, you can continue dreaming.

Powerful because she still get paid for blunders!

I think thats alot misunderstanding...

First of all, I dont work for government, but I work in financial sector.

You guys shd not look at the news at face value. I understand that for layman, the investments seems gone down the drain and suffering huge paper loss, but if you read closer at the clause, things are not as bad as you thought...

For ML stake purchase, Temasek has a "price reset clause" for them to recover the paper lose, where they exercise in end Jul. The reset clause has enable Temasek too recoup the USD2.5BN paper loss from the 5% stake in ML, which they exercise to increase the stake to 9%, giving them average purchase price USD24.33 instead of USD48 per share. At current closing of USD27.52, they actually have paper gain.

As for Temasek's purchase of UBS & GIC purchase of Citi stake, they are both structured in the form of convertible securities. This securities is equivalent to bond+call option, hence, as long as both banks dont go belly up, the initial investment is safe, in fact, they are getting 9% annual yield on UBS & 7% annual yield on Citi. This is far better than what the normal bonds will get, and they get a option to buy into them when smokes cleared.

Actually, all three investments seems like a good deal now even though it was done last n the situation has worsen since. The reasons that they get such good terms & clause because they have the bargaining power (excess funds) especially during the crucial time. This is thanks to their prudent & diversified investments during the pass yrs.

If thats concern of UBS, Citi & ML going belly up, Im sure Temasek & GIC can protect themself by buying CDS. Beside that, you guys should not only focus on the bad press, what about Senoko Power & BIL, both have made multiple times of the initial outlay.

Personally, I do not agree that buying during depress time is stupid move, in fact, buying in strong up market is stupid move. At depress market, with proper analysis & due diligence, you can always fetch good valuation & negotiate clauses to protect yourself.

In fact, I think Ho Ching shd rank higher than 8th, as the markets are in such dire state of needing fresh capital injection, and Temasek is one of the few sovereign funds with such muscle power.

The untold story:

"Meantime, many of the poors in Singapore rank amongst the poorest in the world. They get a buck here and there picking and selling discharged bottles and cans from rubbish bins after the bars and pubs have closed for the night."

"Hold on, do not publish this! Negative and no thrill!" The ST editor yelled! To be continue......