GIC - got it from Wiki

It's quite funny to read this on Wikipedia. Think this article going to be deleted soon..?


Government of Singapore Investment Corporation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Key people
Lee Kuan Yew, ChairmanLee Hsien Loong, Vice-ChairmanTony Tan Keng Yam, Executive DirectorLim Siong Guan, Group Managing Director

The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Private Limited (GIC) is a sovereign wealth fund established by the Government of Singapore in 1981 to manage Singapore's foreign reserves. With a network of eight offices in key financial capitals around the world, GIC invests internationally in equities, fixed income, money-market instruments, real estate and special investments.

GIC's investment portfolio is managed by its three subsidiaries: GIC Asset Management Pte Ltd (public markets), GIC Real Estate Pte Ltd and GIC Special Investments Pte Ltd (private-equity investments).

In 2007, GIC invested S$14 billion foolishly in UBS, a bank whose value has plunged over 60% since that time, meaning that a . S$8.4 billion dollar loss has already been inflicted on Singaporeans.

GIC's stake in ICICI Bank of India, originally hugely profitable, has bungee-jumped 74% down from a peak of 1400 rupees, turning their originally profitable investment into a loss-making one, taking into consideration their average down cost since 2007.
Its sister company Temasek, fared even worse, with a 70% plunge in the value of Merrill Lynch, and a 59% plummet in the value of Citigroup. Even Standard Chartered, supposedly the most stable in the Government's portfolio, has sunk 33.4% based on Friday Oct 10th's closing price of 999.5 p.

Temasek committed another heinous fiasco down under, losing almost S$500 million in the bankrupt ABC Learning after buying at the peak in 2007.

It's also famously losing a vast proportion of its US$3 billion in Shin Corp of Thailand, after the shares plunged over 60% due to Thais' objections and it therefore facilitated an illegality(tax evasion by the former owner Thaksin Shinawatra). Also, it has to pare down its stake to 75% in a falling market.

Due to the recent market selldown, the value of Temasek and GIC's holdings in GLCs like SIA, DBS and such has also plummeted by S$40 billion.

This makes the grand total of deterioration in the Singapore government's portfolio close to S$80 billion, necessitating a hike in transport fares, ERP charges and utility rates to recoup their losses. In 2008, The Economist reported that Morgan Stanley had estimated the fund's assets at US$330 billion[1], making it world's third largest sovereign wealth fund.[2]