meanin what?
hoching still the cancan woman perhaps?
opps december akan datan…time to pat all the directors backs…
its bonu$ payout time…must cook the books in order to have a bowl of albalone porridge brook………

What we need is change, because if its too complicated to understand, the writing on the wall tells us the obvious !!

Change, use your vote wisely……. and exercise your mind when reading articles from the msm.

And with all this gains and losses , what does it translate to for every true blue Singaporean ?

Win = no change to the true blue Singaporean….
Lose = pay more taxes …. ?

There’s one really interesting word which I came across yesterday besides transparency and accountability and that’s “amakudari”. So is “amakudari” the norm is most first world countries? Perhaps TOC should consider doing a report on that, tracing where our own “descent from heaven” are. Over the years I have seen several reports of retired or connecetd “talents” being appointed to completely unrelated cushy, high paying jobs and even the creation of new positions to accomodate them. It makes one wonder, whether you are rewarded for your connections, loyalty or talent. There have been also proven cases of true talent, when such people have taken the challenge to turn around debt-ridden and loss making organisation into a profitable one, a goodyear comes to mind. But more often such talents are appointed to already successful organisation or non-profit making entities where their talent is hardly measureable or accountable. We have also seen the reverse when some organisations have collapsed or incur huge losses due to such talent. In most cases the excuse is that it was due to factors beyond their control (if there are any) but they are never short of self praise when success was based on luck or someone elses efforts.

As of now, review.temasek.com.sg is not online. Hopefully it’s just a glitch on my end and not an actual conspiracy theory raising incident. :P

The way Temasek presented informations tells a lot about its credibility and the changing of Straits Times headlines evidenced their struggle to hide the truth from citizens. Not telling the truth is already very serious, deliberately mis-presenting informations to trick Singaporeans is a crime. If Liu Tuck Yew said main stream media is credible and objective, I guess he means just that displayed by the above two photographs from the straits Times – a day apart.

How shall G or T recover its tremendously huge and shocking losses if it does not use more money to invest more and more?

If so, where will this money come from?

I dunn no leh. u know meh?

beware of greeks bearing jargon

[...] Temasek State Fund Investments – TOC: Analysing Temasek Holdings’ Review: Does portfolio value mean anything? – The Temasek Review: State media tries to cover up GIC’s gigantic S$109 billion loss in two [...]

Temasek earns, people don’t benefit.

Temasek loses people suffer.

That is all I know. Cut all that crappy figures & stats.

The more they try to cover up, the more obvious it is that a big screw up occurred…

with regards to TH, here is what it will be like if they get question:

Reporter A: How much has the value dropped for TH’s portfolio?

Spokesman: As you can see from our Portfolio Value, we have such strong foundation in it.

Reporter B: Why was there such a drastric drop in value?

Spokesman: This is not due to our fault at all. This is due squarely to the global financial crisis which has taken the world by (thunder)storm. It is definitely not our fault. We “diversify” our investment. Who could have predicted it?

Reporter A: So there is a 55bil drop in portfolio value?

Spokesman: I am sorry, there isn’t a drop in portfolio value. We are just having negative value added….

_____________________________________________________________

Isn’t it amazing how much excuse and creative words they can think of to put themselves in a better light

Anyone who is not upfront usually is hiding something.
Anyone who hides something from you usually is out to con you.

“The information from the press and Temasek Holdings contrasts this single drop in portfolio value against previous years’ stellar values and puts the blame of poor performance squarely on the global financial crisis which has taken the world by (thunder)storm.”

Now a very big question I have is this. So they were taken by surprised? then How come Tony Tan from GIC can “anticipate the crisis and taken precautionary action which mitigated losses in the ensuing bear markets.” While TH failed to do so? perhaps they failed to communicate with one another? Ain’t that ironic? One uses their “foresight” to claim credit for their profit in Citi…while the other blame the same event for their lost….

And one sickening thing is this…they are putting the blame squarely on the financial crisis…Geez…what this makes me feel is that this people don’t account for contigency and when it happens, they will go “it is not my fault, it is that thing’s fault?

It was first reported by Temasek Holdings Singapore July 29，2009 “Singapore state investor Temasek said on Wednesday its portfolio had fallen by S$40 billion as of end-March 2009 from a year ago”.

Then it was reported in the Straits Times Sep 17, 2009 under headline “Temasek profit slumps 66%” that “Its net profit slumped from $18 billion in the previous year to $6 billion”. How can they still make a profit if the net portfolio loss is already S$40 billion ? Can someone tell me whether this is possible under any accounting standards ?

hen the next day, the Straits Times Sep 18, 2009 under headline “Temasek rebounds” clarified that “The portfolio sank from a peak of $185 billion on March 31 last year to $130 billion on March 31 this year, according to its annual report, which was out on Thursday. It also showed that the portfolio had rebounded to $172 billion as at July 31. So is the loss S$40 billion as reported by Temasek earlier or S$55 billion (S$185 billion minus S$130 billion) ? They never even bothered to correct the earlier reported loss of S$40 billion ?

Then the Straits Times on Sep 29, 2009 tried to mislead the public with the headline “GIC claws back losses” that Temasek has also rebounded, recovering almost all its losses to reach $172 billion as at July31.

Now simple arithmetic will indicate that S$172 billion is still shy of S$185 billion by S$13 billion, not to speak of the loss of opportunity profits in billions of dollars had they been wisely invested in less risky investments. To say that Temasek has already rebounded is tantamount to telling us that they are just lying.

Somemore nobody really knows whether they have massaged the figures in the first place. If they have not played with the figures in the first place, how to explain that they don’t even know whether it was supposed to be a S$40 or S$55 billion loss for the year ending 31 March 2009 as reported differently ?

When a company is so reluctant to come forward with answers to the questions being raised by the public, there must indeed be a lot of things to hide. Nobody will be any wiser if they choose to remain silent.

How shitty can our government be ? Just read the following.

http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/thanks-to-foreigners-singapore-population-is-hitting-5-millions/

“Guess what ? GIC (Government of Singapore Investment Corporation) took the opportunity to sneak out news of their 20% loses on their portfolio.
Why ?
They probably knew that the foreign population issues is going to draw public attention.
Perhaps, while the people attention is on the 5 millions population figure, they can escape being fire upon by public.
Tell you what, they’re probably right. I think they done it ! Clever maneuver.”

Looks like all is not well in paradise. Previously such questions like “where is our money” or ” are you misleading us” would have landed your in a courtroom and you would have learned that the first question means that you are accusing someone of being a cheat and the second would mean that you are accusing some one of being dishonest and a liar.

Well in cyberspace, such questions are meant to be answered with facts and figures and not twisted out of context. Of course not figures which no one can accurately or cannot be verified. Seems like a small fire has been lit below their bums and soon someone is going to jumb sky high in response. Well brace yourself people…

All sovereign funds eventually will underperform because it is its appointment is political rather meritocracy.

They can give return only on 3 conditions below.

Their portfolio contains home turf company. (ie..government can always inflate land price making people pay for profit going to capitalland…etc)

Owning precious metals or natural resources.. (ie..gold)

Buy S&P 500 index. (idiots are able to do that as well)

Our elites has blown over their heads. Ho Ching thought that she can perform without any fund managing experience just hiring at tax payer expenses a group of scholars to help her.

Eventually, the scholar team proof to be some biggest idiots in the industries.

We can compare the consort of our elite and those of western countries.

Hilary Clinton and Michel Obama both got themselves out of all executive position not long after their husband assume office. They believe a strong sense of conflict of interest.

Ours are all over tries to be Warrne Buffet but eventually everything blows up.

The immediate remedy to recoup losses is by locking citizens CPF (in the name of life insurance )and very certainly a further increase of GST (in the name of helping the poor) if pap win election again. A new government should be borned to reverse all these silly legislation to make everyone poor.

I would also believe the reason behind the influx of foreigners. So that they can bring in more monies (by contributing CPF), cause HDB price to rocket, transport thrive, medical hike,school fees hike and even going to supreme kangaroo also need to pay in order to increase the coffer for TH and thus for that silly woman who has never succeed in her business record. In the end, it is Singaporeans who suffered and made poorer everyday because of one person failed policies and business foresight. Those who voted for PAP previously ought to have their balls squeeze and breathless by now. Country should not have conflict of interest with one famiLEE controlling all the important e$$$tablishment$ of Singapore.

S$172 billion includes loans or capital injections or not. It is a bit suspicious that they managed to recoup some much losses in a couple of months (ie reducing a $40 billion loss to a $13 billion loss; there is a short fall of $27 billion)

Ω李,
life experience tell us that if something appears to be too good to be true, it probably is !
Please don’t doubt that creative accounting is at play. If those clowns can even define the word “afford-ability” in their own terms, they can just do likewise in locked accounting book, a reason why they have to remain secretive and unscrutinized-able.
They can even treat profit as capital and principle, really what else they cannot mislead and con ?

Temasek has been trying very hard to get bonds issued, so that they can get more money from financial institutions.

If they go on like this, and not having a clear reporting of their figures, i not sure how many investors will have confidence in them.

There’s nothing to be surprised about any more in Singapore…

The Emperor has no clothes on ??

The House is on fire ??

We lost S$ 55 Billion of our citizens’ money ??

Our population has reached the 5 million mark and we are still encouraging foreigners to set up homes here ??

Not a problem, Sir…

Not when we have the BEST Spin Doctors in the world.

Temasick profit slumps 66%
Temasick rebounds

Well, that’s as contradictory as :

Temasick Ho Jinx stepped down
Temasick Ho Jinx stays

The modus operandi of ST is to provide half-truths and quote some so called “experts” that will say how great Tamasek is.

Presto….everything shit whitewashed. Uniquely Sinkapore press !!

So what & who gives a Shoot whether temasek lose & make money? Do Sporeans (other than the BODs) gets any real tangible benefits? All I know is that life goes on & the evil maggots (whom will make their Maker soon enough) will pop more champagne for being overly clever to hoodwink us.

it is obvious election is very near probably after the apec meeting. all this sign of good news from their shit times is no stranger to us all these years.

good luck to them. let’s wait and see how thing turn out this time.

Mike,

These are NOT “good news”. It is just heavily biased reporting by ST. The truth is Tamasek and GIC lost huge amounts of money.

Ho Ching as the CEO of Temasek highlights a serious problem about Singapore.

Over the years, Singaporean has relinquish our rights to PAP. No law makers in parliament ever questioned whether there is any potential conflict of interest of her appointment, not even the opposition.

JBJ, furiously compaigning for our civil rights were forsaken by voters. None of our elites has spoken for him.

In the western country, all high ranking public officers has to declare their wealth and sell all their shares.

Yet, our parents (old generations) continue to vote in PAP because they rather preserve their ilusionary wealth of HDB valuation. It is ultimately our parents who bring us all these trouble.

All law makers should grilled and scrutinise all important appointment of public office, and raise questions of conflict interest, just like US senators. I am yet to see any of our “talents” and “integrity” MPs do this.

Amakudari (literally means “descent from heaven”; in our case, Ho Ching should be “unleashed from hell”) “Amakudari is the pratice of golden parachuting former high level bureaucrats to take high-pay positions in various government linked companies and agencies.” (http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2009/09/japanese-govt-ban-amakudari.html)

Does the “revenue” include selling of national assets to foreigners. I wonder what else they cannot sell. They have already sold our soverign rights to FT and caused every Singaporean to lost every inch of space that belongs to the citizen.

12) Yamamoto

Despite all that is said about them, GIC does have some talented people on their payroll whereas the quality of Temasek’s staff is quite questionable. Temasek has some ex stockbrokers and not very experienced portfolio managers.

Nevertheless, some of the GIC people really do let it go to their heads that they are pretty clever and become quite arrogant about it. I think that’s where they start to make big mistakes.

As for Tony Tan’s comment about how GIC managed to anticipate the crisis, I can only say only a good number of other fund managers also did the same and outperformed GIC hands down.

” ….It is therefore very erroneous to suggest that the annual report reports such a figure as the auditors (whose sign off dates 16th July 2009) could not and have not verified this figure to be true, accurate or reliable. It is also quite amusing that Temasek Holdings which prides itself in ensuring that it is always quoted properly has allowed the misrepresentation to exist without corrections…”

Can Temasek Holding comment on this article in the TOC by Gangasudhan?

…otherwise, shame on you Straits Times for the misleading report, and shame on you, too, TH for not correcting the error.

31) Francis Hoe

I am just stating it as ironic….and Tony Tan says it when they only manage to get a bill profit out of xx bill lost….lol

And you are sure right about that…and someone did say HC got to her post because of her willingness to take risk…foolish risk taking doesn’t equate a good investor…

if the Oracle of Omaha himself is invited to invest in TH, i think he will not even come near it with a thousand foot pole.

Re : Francis Hoe

“GIC does have some talented people ”

I believe you are not rigorous in your research about GIC.

First, since GIC is not transparent, they is no way to guage the performance. And if we really trust what LKY say, he did once say something like this about GIC.

“Since its inception in 1981, GIC has averaged returns of over 9% a year”
(till the year somewhere around 2006- 2007, where he made this statement)

If some uneducated grandmother go buy S&P500 during the same period, she will be able to achieve roughly the same result as well.

GIC is definitely below par in view of the amount of resource, information, the size of funds she possessed with respect to the industries.

In short, we hire a bunch of scholars and talent to do something idiots can do.

“GIC does have some talented people ”

No doubt they hire top-notched talent with propensity to buy high and sell low.

“And you are sure right about that…and someone did say HC got to her post because of her willingness to take risk…foolish risk taking doesn’t equate a good investor…”

HoJinx is only capable of taking risk on behalf of the citizens (not that the citizens have any choice) and enjoying all the success of the risk while inherit none of the failure. She herself is 100% risk free with 100% ROI on herself. The fact that she still retain herself as the head of TH amid the investment fiasco substantiates that. With that kind of extraordinary “power”, everyone can take risk and be a hero/heroine.

A two party system will
resolve most of the issues
including the distorted news
reporting of the mass media.

Not worth reading abt Temasek news. If Temasek gains profit, do we get any thing ? But if Temasek loses money, we the people will be in trouble.

When one started to tell too many lies, they forgotten what they’ve spoken earlier so what you say today can be easily forgotten what you are going to say tommorrow, see the whole picture? remember who are the real liars around.

Hi all

Just to explain the concept of this “Wealth Added”. To those who are familiar with Economic Value Added (i.e. EVA), this is something similar. In short, Wealth Added is basically the change in portfolio value less the opportunity cost of the capital invested by the shareholder.

To illustrate this, if I invest $100 in a stock, the opportunity cost of this $100 is, say $4, which I could have earned in other investment vehicles such as bonds, or fixed deposit, etc (after taking into account risks and so on which we will conveniently ignore for now).

If the stock appreciates to $110, this means my portfolio value has grown by $10. But my Wealth Added is only $6 given my opportunity cost of $4.

From the example above, you can see that it is possible to have an increase in portfolio value, BUT still generate a negative Wealth Added if the increase does not cover my opportunity cost.

While im not a fan, what Temasek was trying to say is simple

At end 31 march, portfolio value = 130b
At end 31 July, portfolio value = 172b

If you look at equity market performance in that period, most markets are up ~50% – so its quite likely that that statement is factual.

Some of the rebound could have been attributed to capital injections, but im sure the majority was a result of rebound in equity markets.

Our leaders are fuming, these words almost got blurtted out, but they swallowed it back……”Your people stopped complaining! If you think you people smart then you come take my place and do the job la! …knn kao peh kao bu!”

Can imagine how comfortable and secured the jobs are… They are willing to forgo their pride and stay on the job, no matter how they are being cursed or sweared.

I think the simple message behind these two apparently contradictory headlines is simple -”The Global Crisis has hit us bad but we, the ultra clever from Heaven have defied logic by taking more of your money to improve on our misfortune.”

Once upon a time, I was a Believer…

Once upon a time, I voted for them…

Once upon a time I was a proud Singaporean…

Now, it’s left ear in, right ear out…

Now, I can’t wait for the General Election to excercise my vote…

Now, I want to be a Foreigner…

Thank you Mr Pay And Pay for waking me up from my slumber..

more evidence of how (incompetently) the 154th is trying to blow the trumpet for temasek and the govt.

if temasek is so good, they shld have no qualms subjecting it to public scrutiny like other sovereign funds. afterall, it is OUR money!

“If you look at equity market performance in that period, most markets are up ~50% – so its quite likely that that statement is factual.”

Assuming all of Temasek’s portfolio performed similarly as well (aka rebounded to pre crisis level) AND covered the previous losses of dumping BoA shares and other smaller losses added up such as the loss of ABC Learning.

AND assuming this worldwide rebound is not just a bump.

amakudari = cronyism + nepotism

Singapore is the best example for the world.

Problem is that Singaporeans are forced to accept because they are made voiceless.

[i]more evidence of how (incompetently) the 154th is trying to blow the trumpet for temasek and the govt.

if temasek is so good, they shld have no qualms subjecting it to public scrutiny like other sovereign funds. afterall, it is OUR money! [/i]

3 international oilriched countries just announced a few days ago
they still lost billion$ in their SWF deals…
how singapore made money is way beyon my beliefs?
is the 3 oilriched countries too stupid or just because their soils have oil?

Poor Alvin FOO. First, he reported the facts like the journalist that he is — that TH made a loss. Next day, he was made to appear like a FOOL — having to to massage his story and come up with something for the headline writer to put a positive spin on things — hence a seemingly contradictory headline: TH rebounds.
Sure, the markets worldwide did rebound. But the fact remains, TH made large and painful losses.
Many Singaporeans appreciate the fact that the TH loss was perhaps inevitable in the face of the global economic meltdown. But then, to disguise the fact through artful spinning is distasteful and disrepectful.It insults the intelligence of the average Singaporean.

really cannot tahan these prosLEEtutes of ass pee h. can twist the words to such an extent. where the hell are their conscience? HEY ordinary people on the street are suffering, do u hear us or not?

“Despite all that is said about them, GIC does have some talented people on their payroll whereas the quality of Temasek’s staff is quite questionable. Temasek has some ex stockbrokers and not very experienced portfolio managers.”

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter whether they have extraordinary talent and genius working for GIC and TH if the prevailing culture of those organizations suffer from group think and herd mentality to appease their boss and to retain their lucrative job. The gargantuan loss of investments speak for itself.

The adjectives used to describe Apple’s product can be sarcastically use for the clowns’ investment.
Apple’s Adjectives are Amazing, Awesome, Incredible, Beautiful, Unbelievable, Easy, Really Nice.
www. taranfx . com/blog/apples-adjectives-are-amazing-awesome-incredible-beautiful-unbelievable-easy-really-nice

We have a “Apple” company in Singapore who primary purpose is to make loss not profit.

Our hundred billions loss of state assets are simply Amazing, Awesome, Incredible, Unbelievable.
In addition, Mind-bogging, out-of-this-world, phenomenon, unprecedented.

$100,000,000,000 loss is simply Beautiful, Easy, Really Nice from the eyes of the schizophrenic.

Our version of Steve Jobs ? None other than Old Fart.

Hi, thanks for a good analysis! :)

Temasek Holdings certainly has some explaining to do with regards to that 68b

Just one point. Using your example of a flat, if my flat is now valued at $300,000, then my assets HAD appreciated by $100,000. If it dropped in value by $50,000 to $250,000, well, my assets still appreciated by $50,000. At least I hope so!

And of course as long as I do not sell my flat, I do not have to factor in the costs of doing so. Let’s say I do sell it, and the costs incurred in the sale is $5,000, then, my realized wealth – really a fancy way of saying I convert flat into cash – is $45,000. I would still have done rather well.

But it does not mean that the value of my asset (if I hadn’t sold it) didn’t really increase by $50,000!

And, of course, we don’t really know if there really was any cash/capital injection. It’s a possibility, but possibility is not proof. :)

Our govt are all liars. No wonder we’ve ppl like Ris Low who had committed crimes & speak bad English still so thick-skin & shamless to go ahead to take part in Miss Spore World.

“Many Singaporeans appreciate the fact that the TH loss was perhaps inevitable in the face of the global economic meltdown. ”

Many more do not appreciate the Buy High Sell Low strategy of BoA shares, the lack of due diligence on ABC learning, and the disregard of advice from highly regarded fund managers like Jim Rogers.

And the nearly universal opinion that CEO Ho Ching is not qualified.

34)
All I can say is that I know quite a few people in both places. The GIC recruitment process is quite rigorous while some people in Temasek get in because of connections.

Having a rigorous recruitment programme does not necessarily mean that GIC will get the best in the world but they certainly do get some pretty smart and talented people. Again, that does not guarantee success. But it sure helps to cut the odds of poor investment decisions by a whole lot when you have some brainy people around. This sort of explains why we see Temasek reeling from ill advised investments eg, ABC Learning, Merrill Lynch, Shin etc. Temasek also suffers from very poor timing of their entry and exits from the markets, in other words, buy high, sell low. It just shows that their investment and execution processes are not of very high standards.

No worries, thank to this Financial Crisis. lossing Multi-Trillion of USDollar.
no way to escape or cover up . More news will automatically pop up.
The longer the crisis the more appreciation take place.
So they will get to “Hell”
Nail Them or even the whole LEE regime.

At 44)
For the past three to four years multiply thousand of our young citizen has imgrated. Till now U are slow to open your mouth. Less of U one person not a dig duel. We’re the patroitic people, we stay on and fight for our Rights. Not like Francis Seow or Tang Liang Hong have to run. JBJ don’t have to run.

Singapore is a unique place where the garmen sucks up to the FTs at the expense of its citizens, because they can continue to do so as the citizens can’t do anything to them.

For now, the old man is still around to hold it all together, through his stature as an elder statesman and the people still respect him because of what he has done for the country. But once he is gone, the so call 3G leaders might not be able to hold it together and all hell will break loose.

All of this remind me of ENRON and WORLD.COM Style of Accounting Reporting

If investment can be a guaranteed win.
there will be no poverty.

if investment result has uncertainty,
who can guarantee our future?

41) whybother on October 1st, 2009 12.16 am
Some of the rebound could have been attributed to capital injections, but im sure the majority was a result of rebound in equity markets.

Yes, this may be so, but if they are going to throw a figure out, then it should be described in further detail at the very least.

52) Philip on October 1st, 2009 12.03 pm
And, of course, we don’t really know if there really was any cash/capital injection. It’s a possibility, but possibility is not proof.

Yes, I would like proof too that clearly denies or confirms this possibility.

[...] Temasek State Fund Investments – TOC: Analysing Temasek Holdings’ Review: Does portfolio value mean anything? [Recommended] – The Temasek Review: State media tries to cover up GIC’s gigantic S$109 billion [...]

Check out this scathing video report on one of Temasek’s recent ‘investments’, ABC.
According to the report ABC deep financial troubles were clear to see in the financial accounts by the end of 2007, yet Temasek went ahead with a further investment in the company in 2008?
What did they see that prudent accountants could not in deciding to pump in more money?

Oops forgot the video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYF6JW9vJKo

What did they see that prudent accountants could not in deciding to pump in more money?

Just like the rest of all the other losses by both TH & GIC, how come almost all of their foreign investments LOST SO MUCH BILLIONS OF OUR TAXPAYERS’ MONEY??? Mistakes or somethng else which is yet to be discovered????