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Challenges for Temasek

keke. i think ppl will be scared to meet our initial criteria. :P

sporeguy, why the strong emotion over this topic, btw? :)

 

There'e really no way for that to happen at all...

coz  then, our clientele will be only those we choose to have... hehe... :)

 

keke, ipunter, we'd drive all the fund managers out of business. :P not to mention we'd be regarded as renegades since our styles of investing (both a bit different already) are way against what is traditionally taught.

man, i'm so thickskinned. bwah haha.

 

Then we can invite "Ivy" (my mythical rich and nice lady) to patronise our service... :)

 

Looks like we'll make a good funds management duo... hehe... :)

 

thank you ipunter :)

trust your portfolio's fine? read somewhere else you're all out of market. you'll always have my respect as one of the best readers of the market. Good one on the divergence. :)

it dovetailed with my own reading that why i cut all TA plays last week

 

My dear Elfin...

Your post is such an enlightening one... :)

My respects to you, my dear... :)

 

actually sporeguy, it was not singapore per se which antagonised the thais. What got their goat was that the Shinawatras got the money from the sale of Shin Corp tax free.



It's psychology. if you are poor, and this PM and his family get 1.9 billion tax free, while you're squeezed to death, wouldn't you dispose of him? the rest of it was internal thai politics. Thaksin's loved by the biz world but the old guard have never liked him. They used Shin Corp to drum up support from the poor, and when the public and elites turned against him, his game was lost. Must say the poor, esp in the north, are very much for him though. they still have pictures of him up in their houses. And say what you like, he's the only PM who's done something for the poor--cf the small-loan cooperatives he's set up for villages there. It's given many a chance out of poverty.



Temasek was just the silly guy who got caught in the cross-fire. And may i note here that since it's always scholars who run the country here, they're not very good in the biz world either, since they've never even been in a proper job interview, let alone negotiate a biz deal. they think black-and-white means black-and-white, which is why we get eaten up alive in any institutional biz deal we try to do overseas. Suzhou Industrial Park being a key example, amongst many, many others that the singapore populace doesn't even realise. This is how cloistered we are.



Indonesia's just greedy if you ask me. They want to profit from the casinos too. but then, everyone wants. It's human nature. The problem with singapore too is that we don't know how to bend with the wind. There are times to be rightly proud, but there are also times to be humble. we've never been apologetic about our success, which in a gotong royong SEAsian mentality, is irritating to those with less. It's the politics of envy, the crabs-in-a-barrel mentality, and singapore fails at this game.

We only know how to be the master and not the concubine. As a nation, or as a people, we're simply not adaptable enough.

 

Spore build their MRTs, circle line , no problem as seen through the indonesian eyes. But IRs - two somemore !, Spore wants to show off. Ah Ha, make lives difficult for you by banning sand. No much effect, now we shall ban granite, see how great you are ?

 

Challenges .... a euphemism for "big problems".

 

Spore's success is the envy of many neighbouring countries. Now the politicians in Spore must learn how to communicate to Sporean without causing envy from our neighbours. That was how some billionaires in Indonesia keep a low key of their wealth by not overshowing in the house they stay and the cars they drive. In the past, Spore can rely on Thailand and the Philippines to balance the powers of the other countries i n SEA, but Spore make a mistake of antagonised the Thais. Don't forget that every country has a pride. Imagine, suppose that the PUB in Spore is privatised and Indonesia has a majority stake, how will we feel ? Treaten ? insecure ?

 

Thai government is probably using Singapore as a convenient beating boy to rally support from their people around a common "enemy".

Same old tatic that's used all over the world.....

 

About what has oredi happen in Thai, thou..it cost Temasek S$1.9B, no point paying another S4.3B for ITV, if they wanted so badly all their own so call stuffs, just to own them, then let them have it co's it will make them even poorer shortly and another 8-10 years to recover beco's from business point of view, equipments is alway subjected to wear and tear and need alot of money to maintain by then still need more $$$ to send another new one up.



Against this back drop.Insurgents in South Thailand's pit Buddhist agaist Muslims, see page 26 (S.E.A.) in ST paper Mar 3, 2007.
 

 

Thai govt may place army officers in 76 provinces, idea seen as move to tighten military control in it country.

By Nirmal ghosh

Thai  correspondent in Bangkok (Bangkok psot)



What does it tell behind such story.....??

 

Challenges for Temasek, Published January 23, 2007


A FAMILIAR accusatory tone over Singapore investment company Temasek Holdings's interest in telecoms companies in the region has surfaced again. Last week, Thai army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin told high school students that Thai military secrets were at risk of being compromised because of last year's takeover by Temasek of the Shin Corp telecoms group, founded by ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.


'Our army has a problem now. When we make a call, the line goes to Singapore. When we talk secrets, they go straight to Singapore,' Gen Sonthi is reported to have said. Temasek controls Shin, which in turn controls two leading telcos in Thailand.

The Thai army chief's remarks are reminiscent of former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad's quip when he blocked the sale of Time dotCom to Temasek subsidiary Singapore Telecommunications in 2000. 'A lot of people worry about SingTel. I don't know why. Maybe because they sing and tell,' Dr Mahathir is reported to have said at the time.

Temasek and companies in its stable have also faced resistance when they tried to acquire other foreign telecoms assets such as Optus in Australia, Global Crossing in the United States, and Indosat in Indonesia. Any security-related apprehensions associated with asset ownership by Temasek and Temasek-linked companies are, of course, baseless. These entities invest overseas simply in expectation of good economic returns. To be sure, Temasek is not alone in having to face nationalistic backlashes. Other examples of economic nationalism include resistance against Indian-owned Mittal Steel's attempt to buy Luxembourg steel maker Arcelor, American objections to Dubai Ports World's takeover of six US ports, and China National Offshore Oil Corp's failed bid for California-based Unocal due to concerns over foreign control of US oil resources.

So, should Temasek and its companies shy away from trying to acquire 'politically sensitive' assets for fear of a political backlash? This would not be advisable for any commercial player, Temasek included. Besides, it is not always possible to tell in advance which assets are considered sensitive, by whom and for what reason.

However, as long as Temasek continues to be owned by the finance ministry, it will be perceived by some as a vehicle of the Singapore government, even though it invests on a purely commercial basis. Temasek thus faces the challenge of having to deal with, and where necessary, counter, perceptions of its role as an investor - even if those perceptions are wrong. It would have to pay particularly close attention to the political risk, especially in the region; its internal assessments of political risk would need to be qualitatively different from those of other commercial investors. Temasek would also need to manage perceptions where possible, which would call for a pro-active outreach strategy to media and other interest groups.

This is no easy task. But maintaining a discreet silence - the normal hallmark of an investment company - would not always serve Temasek well.