Singaporeans question investment in Western banks

re: Singaporeans question investment in Western banks

David — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:58:05 GMT

I just purchased BSC using the rational that the stock is now cheap and distressed, with a great upside potential. This 15 billion investment could have been made based on the same idea.

re: Singaporeans question investment in Western banks

dchanko — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:06:19 GMT

The title of this blog was "Singaporeans question investment in Western Banks" and was related to the question in parliament about the wisdom of investing in a a falling asset.

Regardless of whether this was a boneheaded decision or not, the rationale or the working behind the decision to invest in failing western banks, would never be seriously debated in the Singaporean parliament,

The head Temasek Holdings holding is Madam Ho Ching , just just coincidentally happens to be the wife of the prime minister, who is the son of the founder of the PAP party to which Mr. Singh is a member. The track record of Temasek recently also with some investments in recent years has not been all it should, with investments in Shin Corp, Micropolis, Optus by SingTel .

Mr Markman I would be very interested to hear how you get on with regard to contacting Mr Singh, however for a true perspective bout Singaporean citizens’ views of the investments. You could check the local media, which is run by Media Corp.. but oops that owned 100% by Temasek holding also...good luck

re: Singaporeans question investment in Western banks

Charles — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:51:05 GMT

Several months ago on CNBC, Boone Pickens made the statement that "U.S. gasoline should be $5 per gallon". It is because of this type of greed on the part of our business leaders and politicians that will cause the U.S. economy to fail. The Singaporeans, through HSBC, Beneficial etc. hold billions of dollars of mortgages on countless U.S. homes, buildings and property. The U.S. never has to worry about a military invasion by China, Russia or any other country. All that is necessary to take over America is to buy the mortgages from the Singaporeans, call the mortgages from the property owners who can't pay and move in. I for one am ready to return to protectionism.

re: Singaporeans question investment in Western banks

eric — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:34:30 GMT

agree with camb76, and don't think the GIC or other soverign wealth fund has done anything wrong. the market may fluctuate very much in the coming year or two, but it's certainly worthwhile for them to invest in these big investment banks. you have to know what those people behind the soverign wealth fund are thinking, they're not individuals, they're representing their countries, China, Singapore, and oil countries. they don't have their own multi-national investment banks, yet they have a lot of money, and they now have such a good opportunity to show off by using their "never-use-up" money to invade these so-called "prestigious" investment banks. in the sense of making money, they're doing the right thing, because they're actually investing in the worst (cheapest price) time, may be a lot of people are saying the worst is yet to come, but they're not selling the shares in one or two years, so they don't care if the market fluctuate so much in the coming year.

re: Singaporeans question investment in Western banks

camb76 — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:05:52 GMT

I think your implication that GIC's investment in UBS has lost money since it was announced is misplaced. The UBS deal was based on convertible bonds paying 9% a year. The bonds need to be exchanged for shares 2 years after they are issued following approval by UBS shareholders. Since the UBS shareholder meeting is only to be held on Feb 27, it actually means that the deal gets sweeter for GIC the more that UBS shares fall between the deal announcement date and the shareholder approval date. This is because while the 9% interest is fixed, a lower share price means more potential upside for GIC's investment in UBS over the next 2 years.

re: Singaporeans question investment in Western banks

ko11913@msn.com — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:42:27 GMT

Bush and the "Ive got mine" CEO wanted a free trade world. America did not. So Bush and the Fed gave everyone an Enron fire sale. If you can't sell the public (sell the building), burn down the economy (burn down the building), Take the money (insurance) and run. The USA has been sold off to the new powers on the rise: Russia and China.

re: Singaporeans question investment in Western banks

Tom Donohue, NewsVisual, wwwnewsvisual.com — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:38:46 GMT

Given the recent track record of American financial institutions like Merrill and Citi, one can hardly blame the Singaporeans for believing that it’s too risky an investment for their sovereign wealth fund. If I were them, I would want to limit their investment in JP Morgan, which I wrote about this week, because that bank has a diversified business that hedges against a downturn in any one market. It’s the anti-Countrywide model, so to speak.

re: Singaporeans question investment in Western banks

Troy — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:20:26 GMT

Well for one thing Republicans can't handle the Economy. Bush has proven this.