30 Business THE MYANMAR TIMES JULY 8- 14, 2013
30 Business THE MYANMAR TIMES JULY 8- 14, 2013
SINGAPORE
Temasek’ s global portfolio reaches a record high
US $ Billion
69
Value of Temasek’ s global portfolio as of March this year
Chia Song Hwee, Temasek’ s head of investment, announces the fund’ s results for the fiscal year ending last March, in Singapore on July 4. The value of Temasek’ s portfolio rose 8.6 percent year on year. Photo: AFP
STATE-INVESTMENT giant Temasek said on June 4 the value of its global portfolio rose to a record high of US $ 169 billion in the fiscal year to March thanks to a rebound in stock markets.
The fund said its holdings jumped 8.6 percent from the previous fiscal year, and are more than three times larger than at the height of the severe acute respiratory syndrome( SARS) health scare 10 years ago.
Temasek – which has stakes in Standard Chartered bank, Spanish energy giant Repsol and DBS bank – was boosted by an equities rebound last year as the US economy picked up and eurozone fears abated.
“ Last year, there were some signs of recovery in the global economy. The severe disruptive risks from the global financial crisis subsided,” Temasek chairman S Dhanabalan said.
However, he warned“ structural risks have not been completely resolved”.
“ Despite the turmoil over the last decade, the Temasek portfolio value more than tripled from March 2003, when the SARS epidemic hit Asia,” he added.
Temasek executive director Ho Ching said the value of the company’ s portfolio would depend on the performance of global stocks each year.
“ We are almost entirely invested in equities,” she said.“ This means a lot more year-to-year volatility, as we have seen over the last 10 years.”
Temasek also said Asia was still the anchor of its investments, with the region accounting for 71pc of underlying assets.
Singapore accounts for 30pc of its total investments and China 23pc, while exposure to North America and Europe was at 12pc.
Temasek, one of Singapore’ s two sovereign wealth funds, said its three biggest holdings were in Singapore Telecom, China Construction Bank and Standard Chartered.
Stakes in the three firms make up 29pc of its global portfolio.
Chia Song Hwee, head of Temasek’ s investment group, said at a news conference that while Temasek would continue to be anchored in Asia, it would seek new opportunities in North America and Europe despite the market uncertainty in both regions.
“ North America continues to be the centre stage for innovation... and Europe has many good and steady companies and we stand ready to assess them,” he said.
China’ s current liquidity crisis would not affect the Chinese banks Temasek had stakes in as they were well capitalised, Mr Chia said.
“ We invest in banks as a proxy to their underlying economies. Our view of the economy in China at least over the next 15 to 20 years continues to be positive mainly because of the demography,” he added.
Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC markets in Singapore, said China’ s ongoing economic reforms and a potential end of massive stimulus measures in the United States this year could hamper Temasek’ s growth opportunities.
He said the firm’ s rate of return could slow to 6pc in the current fiscal year from 8.86pc in the year ended last March.
But he added that“ it won’ t matter to them since they think longterm”.
Temasek said it was looking to expand its stake in industries such as clean technology, life sciences and consumer technology. – AFP
DHAKA
Most Bangladeshi garment plants‘ unsafe’
ONLY one in 10 garment factory buildings inspected by engineers from a top Bangladesh university were structurally sound, underlining the scale of safety problems for the world’ s second-biggest clothes producer, the head engineer said on July 4.
Building and factory owners rushed to request engineers check the buildings in the wake of the collapse of the nine-storey garment factory complex in April that killed 1129 people, Bangladesh’ s worst industrial disaster.
Six buildings, housing garment factories, have been cleared as structurally sound after being inspected by teams of engineers from the country’ s prestigious Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
Structural flaws, ranging from minor to severe, were discovered at another 60 buildings in and near the capital Dhaka, including two that could collapse at any moment, said Mohammad Mujibur Rahman, head of the university’ s civil engineering department.
“ Of the 66, we found only six buildings to be perfect and without any noticeable distress or deviation,” said Mr Rahman, whose final report into the inspections will be handed to officials.
Teams requested that two buildings, housing multiple garment plants, be shut down immediately after cracks were discovered, similar to those found at the Rana Plaza, one day before it
90 %
Bangladeshi garment factories found to have structural flaws in recent inspections by engineers
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Engineers checked the foundations, support columns and other structures of the buildings and the soil they were built on, as well as any documents and plans that could be produced.
The collapse of the Rana Plaza highlighted appalling safety issues at Bangladesh’ s 4500 garment factories whose workers churn out clothes for the world’ s leading Western retailers.
Many of the buildings were thrown up quickly, sometimes without consulting engineers, to house factories for the garment industry, the mainstay of the Bangladesh economy, accounting for 80 percent of the country’ s US $ 25 billion annual exports.
Bangladesh government has embarked on a major inspection drive of its own, deploying dozens of teams to probe the safety of the factories in an effort to reassure worried retailers.
The 66 garment factories were among 102 buildings that the engineering teams inspected, upon request, including banks, schools and private businesses. Many did not have design plans, drawings or records of their construction on file for inspection.
“ Many of these buildings were residential quarters before they were converted into factories. Quite a few were built without qualified engineers and several have had multiple floors added to the structure, flouting construction norms,” Mr Rahman said. Garment industry bosses as well as the government have been trying to persuade Western fashion firms not to move production out of Bangladesh in the wake of the disaster.
Fearing a consumer backlash, many Western retailers have since launched their own monitoring of Bangladesh’ s factories, including fire safety conditions.- AFP