Chief Strategist behind Shin Corp debacle now head of Temasek’s Seatown Holdings
February 15th, 2010 | 
Author: Written by Our Correspondent
According to a recent Bloomberg report, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings has set up a global investment company run by its Chief Strategist Charles Ong.
Seatown Holdings Pte Ltd,which will manage billions of dollars will “target absolute returns”, said three people with knowledge of its plan, but asking not to be identified because the information is private.
When asked by Bloomberg, Charles Ong refused to divulge more details except that “Seatown is a global investment company wholly owned by Temasek” which in turn is a “commercial entity” owned by the Ministry of Finance.
It is not revealed where Seatown will be getting its funds from.
Temasek Holdings’ global reputation has taken a battering following a series of dubious investments which saw its portfolio dropped by 30 per cent in the financial year ending March 2009 resulting in the loss of billions of dollars.
Its CEO Ho Ching initially indicated her desire to step down but was “reinstated” after Temasek’s CEO-designated Chip Goodyear left under a cloud of controversy due to “strategic differences”.
As expected, the Minister of Finance Tharman declined to explain the real reasons behind Goodyear’s departure on the grounds that it will not serve any “strategic purpose.”
While the Singapore media has been quick to publicize Temasek’s latest foray into hedge funds, it failed to reveal the background of the man in charge – Charles Ong, who was the Chief Strategist behind the sale of Thailand’s Shin Corp to Temasek Holdings in 2006.
China Economic Review claimed that the purchase of Shin Corp by Temasek was engineered by both Charles Ong and his brother Richard Ong, then the co-head of investment banking of Goldman Sachs in Asia:
“But can we glean a clue by examining Richard Ong’s resume? According to the FT again, Ong was “instrumental” in Singapore government investment vehicle Temasek’s purchase of ousted Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s Shin Corp last year. But just how instrumental was he? The Nation, a Thai paper, noted that Richard’s brother, Charles Ong, is Temasek’s head of overseas investment strategy and “right-hand man” to Temasek chief Ho Ching. According to Goldman’s website, its Singapore office counts Temasek as a “key client”.
The Temasek-Shin Corp deal went through, but triggered a series of events that led to a military coup against Thaksin’s government and an US$820 million paper loss for Temasek at one point. Because Temasek is seen as a proxy of Singapore’s government (although ostensibly independent), with close links to the ruling People’s Action Party (Ho Ching is Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s wife), the purchase of Shin Corp caused alarm in Thailand. Thais saw the deal as Singapore’s government getting too close for comfort.”
[Source: China Economic Review, July 2007]
The extent of Temasek’s loss in Shin Corp was not revealed to this very day.
Singaporeans should not be too worried if Seatown Holdings may end up like another “Shin Corp” under the charge of Charles Ong, who was appointed probably because he is the “best person” for the job as is Temasek’s CEO Ho Ching.
After all, Temasek Holdings is responsible only to the Ministry of Finance and not to the people of Singapore.
Posted in Editorial
so, those who made mistakes are not punished but rewarded instead. what kind of message is temasek sending out. no wonder, its results has gone from bad to worse.
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If its true…How much was Goldman Sachs paid for in commission for Shin corp deal?
Recent report, Greece paid Goldman Sachs US$300 million in 2001 to hide the country huge debt thru interest-rate swap.
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Still want to vote papayas ??? Please use your brain and think , not your ASS . OK ?
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“The extent of Temasek’s loss in Shin Corp was not revealed to this very day.”
Well, as long as the people do not demand for transparency, that is the way things will be.
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Inside sources say that the purchase of ShinCorp by Temasek was a whitewash. It was actually an indirect bribe to Thaksin for scrapping the Thai government’s plan to draw the blueprint and eventual construction of the (now defunct) Kra Canal which would cut through the Southern part of Thailand and provide direct and easy access from vessels plying from Indian Ocean and South China Sea. In other words, the operation of such a canal would be DETRIMENTAL TO SINGAPORE’S PORT OF SINGAPORE AUTHORITY as a lot of vessels will by-pass our port since voyage time would be reduced significantly.
This is the real reason for the purchase of ShinCorp and nothing else. There was no commercial value in Temasek’s purchase of that outfit because the lease life of its monopoly on Thai communications industry was running out in a couple of years, and it was also dragged with a couple of billions in unpaid and overdue taxes to the Thai authorities. It was a politically motivated decision. Lee Hsien Yang was against it because initially they wanted SingTel as the vehicle (and that was the reason why he resigned his post).
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If not for the turmoil in northern country, Shin Corp would have been a gem for Temasek; that Shin Corp became a mistake and has turned into a debacle were due to unforseeable political circumstances beyond the control of the dealmakers. So it is not fair to say that the dealmakers blundered on this one. Even then one must look at the larger perspectives of things, a few strings of losses in an entire season of wins doesnt make a team less impressive.
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Shin corp deal was a silencer done between siblings in quiet without market knowledge.
One gets paid while the other gets promoted.
Singaporean Taxpayers got screwed up.
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Now we all know why the PAPPIES must be voted out and finally made accountable to all of us!
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If my memory is ok there was a sgx listed company called pacific can,later re-named as seatown which changed its name again because the business failed?? I dont know what the company is called now. So many names to choose from and what an inauspicious choice. Hope it doesn’t become a taboo
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Looking at their past record, frankly speaking i do not have any confident on how our GIC, Temasek and Seatown invest.
I guess the top management have more experiences in losing $ than making $.
If a bank keep losing $ in their investment, do you want to deposit your $ in his bank. ask yourself.
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1. If you try to borrow 25K from any bank – you will need to get a number and get in line. If you are offered a line of credit in access of 500K from any bank, they will pay a visit, buy you dinner and try to woo you to borrow money from them.
2. It takes a lot of balls to loose the kind of money which Charles / Richard Ong – that is Talent, foreign or local – it is Talent.
3. After a huge mistake like Shin Corp – Charles Ong is given a 2nd chance – either Ho Ching has no more candidate or she really believes in this guy, must be a god son of some kind.
4. Trust me – even if Ho Ching (Temasek) needs to report to Tharman (MOF) – she will not, she is sleeping with the PM and has kids with him…so let’s not kid ourselves here.
5. There will only be 2 scenarios after 2 years – a Successful Seatown or a Unsuccessful Seatown.
Successful – Temasek will say “See! We believe in our young and talented locals and he delivered! It was always our vision and our choice was rewarded”
Unsuccessful – Temasek will say “We have heard the voices from the grassroots and we created Seatown to be transparent to our electorate! Unfortuantely, our choice was not so good but we believe in our strategy and all we need to do now, is to choose any talent”
Either way, Temasek will not need to be accountable to our electorate.
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absolute return?
this new given the record of th has been losing for a long time.
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Bloomberg 15Feb2010- Greece Int. rate swap thru Golden Sachs:
Lucas van Praag, a spokesman for New York-based Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, didn’t respond to e-mails seeking comment.
Someone should send an email to Goldmen Sachs NY to seek comments on Shin corp lost deal done with Temasek.
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MinDef given Thai ex-PM Thaksin 7 units of F15 A/B fighter jets FREE still not enough?
What the hell are both of you, Temasek and GIC doing???
No brain.
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Brother in Seatown will become a safe keeping custodian for brother in Goldman Sachs. Parking deals.
INQUIRY! INQUIRY! INQUIRY!
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Unwritten rules, the MAS does not allowed siblings (or husband and wife)to negotiate deals or close any financial instrucment in any financial products. To avoid abusing the system in pricing and social entertainment.
Its unethical and unprofessional.
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The market cannot tolerate such rubbish dealings between siblings especialy at higher levels.
This will tarnish Singapores long established good reputation.
Goldman Sachs HO has to be notified of such undesirable practises by their Asia operations.
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The name Seatown seem to convey a sense of doom and gloom…its sounds like its gonna SINK. Why not Boomtown?Goldtown?Richtown?Strongtown?Of all things…..Seatown. Did someone paid millions to some image consultant to suggest the name?
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Dear Ms. Myrna Thomas, the Managing Director (Corporate Affairs)
Temasek Holdings
Whats your comment on Shin corp previous deal done thru Goldman Sachs Asia and Temasek?
Under normal market practice, no siblings or husband and wife are allowed handling/or dealings in financial transactions between themselves either as brokers or principles, let alone two brothers closing a multi-million US$ deals among two highly professional market entities.
There are unwritten rules put in place by MAS on such matters. Simply to avoid favouritism in pricings favoring one party over other market particopants at large.
This is clearly an infringement of the code of conduct.
As taxpayers, we are concerned that such practice, if allowed, could tarnish the good reputation of Singapore as a Financial Centre.
Best Regards
AAA Ratings
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PAP can make mistakes in many things or even all things, but there will still be 98% seats for the PAP at every election. This one they will never make a mistake. Because they got this right, all other things will fall in place.
I really admire the PAP for their strategy in getting this right and this is largely due to the great unity and cohesion among their MPs under the highly regarded Mentor Lee. Just look at the opposition. Even before being elected, they already jumped like frogs between parties and which are also just mosquito parties. Like that how to win against PAP?
Don’t say other things but can’t they at least be united as one like the PAP?
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Can cause JAUNDICE in THE LIVER!!! And since the liver IS LIFE-BLOOD… What happens to you??? You TURN YELLOW!!! And turning in western cowboy terms is “Yella” … meaning “Cowardice” or “A Coward”!!!
What ARE WE Singaporeans AT-LARGE???… And MORE IMPORTANTLY What ARE Singaporean(s) in pap really??? Papayas that cause jaundice and detriment to MORE AND MORE OF US…. or of nutrition benefit to OUR HEALTH???
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Shin corp deal was a silencer done between siblings in quiet without market knowledge.
One gets paid while the other gets promoted. Singaporean Taxpayers got screwed up.
How much more do you people want your life saving cpf being dumped???? have you people learn your lessons after all these years??? a leopard will always be a leopard!
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To quote Forrest Gump, stupid is as stupid does.
That should answer everyone’s doubts about TH.
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Two legs good, four legs bad..err
or was it…..
Four legs good, two legs bad…..
Better you go figure it out ,yourself.
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Seatown= Temasek. It is just another language of the same thing.
Temasek= ‘Sea Town’ in Javanese, Chinese: 淡马锡.
That’s obvious.
Hey, I am the Deity of Conflict. Kratos is someone I know well.
Mere Mortals we are not, we have just merely assumed the role of a mortal.
Mortals who claimed to be High Beings, need to reminded of their place in the world via ballot box.
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This is a hedge fund which focuses on absolute return – taking leverage… buy this, short-sell that, etc
For retail investors? hedge funds are only for “sophisticated investors”. Temasek could easily have offered one of the ‘long only’ funds from its Fullerton unit for retail investors.
One question we need to ask is why is Temasek increasingly duplicating the public market investment activities of GIC?
and why is Temasek increasingly taking leverage, borrowing $4 billion in the past months, and now setting up a hedge fund? Running a hedge fund is not long-term investment, it is speculative trading through taking leverage.
Ho Ching and team need to read the Temasek Charter again.
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Charles Ong was the chief investment officer of Temasek and the right-hand man of Ho Ching. Ong was instrumental in the purchase of Shin Corp together with his brother Richard Ong, who was a managing director at Goldman Sachs.
The Malaysian then had to step down as chief investment officer in Dec 06 after the fallout of the deal, and take on a newly created position of “chief strategist.”
The thing is Charles Ong was always a corporate finance person, and was never a risk taker in trading!
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I am very disappointed – TH owned by MOF and not by the nation? Who owns MOF? PAP? or government?
What if the PAP loses big in a freak election. Who will own the MOF – the new ruling party or the losing party?
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HO rides on CO and CO rides on RO…
Its either HOCOCORO! or ROCOCOHO!
MOF and MAS keeping quiet.
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Is Seatown going to be a HEDGE FUND? So far no details are disclosed except that it is a global investment company. International media is speculating on its investment stance but its CEO is keeping mum.
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What is wrong with all of you? The money in TH and GIC are not yours. Singapore doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to LKY and his goons. We are just slaves to be exploited and worked to death. Our savings are monopoly money to be gambled away. We don’t know what other hidden arrangements and secret deals exist behind our backs. We are just told to trust them completely.
One day all these will be brought out in the open and we (or our grandchildren) will know the truth. Until then we are like mushrooms, kept in the dark and have shit thrown at us. Enjoy, we only have ourselves to blame.
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NS reservist
The jet fighters you mentioned were not F-15 Strike Eagles but actually the antiquated F-5 Tiger (scraped from operational service after 30 years in RSAF). The F-15(E) only became operational in our air force in 2009.
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get your facts right, please live up to your name. The F-15E is used by the USAF. The RSAF uses the F-15SG.
For everyone else’s information, Sea Town is probably a misspelling of Shi Town, as in “Death Town”.
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Darth Vader
The F-15SG is a derivative of F-15E which was the definite model on which the Singapore version is based. The SG derivative stands for Singapore because we have a different avionics fix and different APG version of radar with look up and look down capability and longer detection range. My facts are correct. The Israeli version = F-15I and the S. Korean version = F-15K
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Darth Vader
FYI the F-15E Stike Eagle is a totally different plane from the F-15 Eaggle. Both the planes are definitive models, i.e. which means there are many derivative sub-models with different avionics and radar capabilities.
The F-15 Eagles were standard air-superiority fighters, especially the C derivative, the first few units being operational in 1978/9. their mission is to provide air cover for strike aircraft, and for general air defence of air space. The later days F-15E configuration were strike fighters, hence the name Strike Eagles. That means they take on interdiction multi-roles, i.e. they take on strike missions (bombing and attack roles) and are responsible for their own defence (engage enemy combat aircraft).
These fighters were originally produced by McDonnell Douglas but has since been taken over and absorbed by Boeing.
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Darth Vader
Also, the version of F-15E Strike Eagle flown by Saudi Arabia is the F-15S (and that is why Singapore, a later day operator has to use the suffix “SG” because the “S” was already taken by the Saudi jets).
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Do you guys know that Myrna Thomas was a newsreader on channel 5 in the early 80’s?
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Darth
My facts are always correct. The F-15 which is an air superiority fighter sprouted several submodels, notably the F-15C which became the main submodel in this class.
The F-15E is a strike fighter designed for deep penetration of enemy territory. This fighter has also sprouted several derivative submodels, and usually these are denoted by the countries which purchased them with the “E” suffix being changed to a suffix suited as acronym to these countries. Israel (F-15I) Saudi Arabia (F-15S) S. Korea (F-15K) and Singapore (F-15SG). Because Saudi Arabia planes already got the “S” suffix those manufactured and configured for Singapore had to carry a double suffix “SG”. But all these planes, whether F-15I, F-15S, F-15K, or F-15SG are all based on the F-15E Strike Eagle (and not on the original F-15 version).
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@No Hidden Agenda,
Interesting points!
PAP buys shin so that Thaksin will not build a canal through Thailand which inevitably make PSA lose its business, Therefore the ‘purchase’ was actually a bribe.
Thaksin then used some of the cash to buy Manchester City and then sold off with huge profit to the current abu dhabi owners.
Can we employ Thaksin instead of Ho Ching?
However, I kinda disagree on why Lee Hsien Yang resigned.. What i heard was that Father Lee was pissed at Hsien Yang’s indiscreet visits to Tian An Men and the straw that broke Father Lee KY’s back was when Hsien Yang had an affair with his malay personal assistant. Think that affair is still going on no?
If we were in Taiwan, there’d be photos all over on his indiscretion as well as full media coverage of Alex’s maiden speech.
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//get your facts right on Mon, 15th Feb 2010 11:51 pm
The Royal Thai Air Force ordered a total of 54 F-16A/B Fighting Falcon aircraft. It received a further 7 F-16A/B aircraft as a donation from Singapore in exchange for the use of training facilities in Thailand by the RSAF. The RTAF is likely to purchase more F-16s in the near future.
http://www.f-16.net/f-16_users_article20.html
Ive read from Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) website.
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//get your facts right on Mon, 15th Feb 2010 11:51 pm
Sometime back, ST reported RSAF donated 7 units of old fighter jets to Thai Airforce.
But the Thai Air Force (RTAF) reported donation of new 7F RSAF-16A/B aircraft takes delivery in 2005.
How to trust ST reporting?
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According to a report by The Nation, “The power and politics behind Kularb Kaew” on 25 Sept 2006. The Ong brothers are Malaysians!!!
Haha, Foriegn Talent again!!!
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If T. Holdings is only answerable to MOF, then who is MOF answerable to? MOF better explain to Singaporeans WHY such a big amt is lost, and why the Shin investment went belly up. We are not daft – we can understand the politico-economic logic. If no explanation comes, nvm, we’ll remember this when voting comes.
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Looks like Singapore has been cheated, yet again.
The famiLEE is playing with tax payers money and using incompetant people in Temasek or GIC, supporting their own clan (dialect) group, even from Malaysia.
Nope, must definitely vote out PAP.
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I thought richard ong is also instrumental in raising US$1billion from Temasek for the Hopu Fund, which surprise, surprise, Richard Ong is also one of the managing partner. I think this is public info. (google it)
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SEATOWN was a PLC with G-interest that went BELLY-UP not too long ago.The Ong brothers are both Malaysians with one responsible for Goldman’s Temasek interest in his hands responsible for the Shin-Corp. deal reporting directly to Ho Ching & LKY.
Why do we need Malaysians PR? to manage our FORTUNE? are there none TRUE BLUE SINGAPOREANS capable enough to manage or not given the chance?
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Bloomberg says Seatown is a hedge fund in disguise
===
Temasek Starts Global Investment Company Seatown, Names Ong CEO
2010-02-10 07:03:40.152 GMT
By Netty Ismail and Bei Hu
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) — Temasek Holdings Pte has set up a
wholly owned global investment company run by its chief
strategist Charles Ong that will employ a variety of strategies
investing in assets ranging from stocks to bonds.
Seatown Holdings Pte, which may manage billions of dollars,
will target absolute returns, three people with knowledge of its
plan said earlier, asking not to be identified because the
information is private.
Temasek, which managed S$172 billion ($121 billion) as of
July 31, has transformed from a passive holder of stakes in
government-controlled companies to an investor with more than
two-thirds of its underlying assets abroad. Chief Executive
Officer Ho Ching said in July Singapore’s state investment firm
may invite the public to co-invest and seek “sophisticated
investors” and retail investors within a decade.
“Hedge funds give them a lot of flexibility in terms of
the investment strategies,” said Melvyn Teo, a director at the
BNP Paribas Hedge Fund Centre at Singapore Management University.
“This would definitely boost returns if they can earn fees and
at the same time deliver good returns to investors and to
themselves.”
Seatown is a global investment company wholly owned by
Temasek, Ong said in an e-mailed statement today, without giving
further details.
Temasek already has a fund-management unit, Fullerton Fund
Management Co., which invests in hedge funds and other assets
such as equities and bonds.
Fullerton
The sovereign wealth fund, which may be trying to attract
and retain talent, “might have known more about hedge funds
from their experience” with Fullerton, Teo said.
The size of the hedge fund may be $3 billion, AsianInvestor
reported on its Web site earlier today, without saying where it
got the information.
Nasser Ahmad, co-founder of New York-based DiMaio Ahmad
Capital LLC, a hedge-fund firm specializing in credit products,
will be Seatown’s co-CEO and Margaret Lui will be chief
operating officer.
“We have a small core team seconded from Temasek, and are
still in the process of building up the Seatown team,” Jeffrey
Fang, a spokesman at Temasek, said in a statement. He declined
to provide more details about the new investment company.
Temasek is “exploring the feasibility of creating one more
group of stakeholders” by inviting the public to co-invest, Ho
said in July. Before doing this, Temasek would first pilot the
relevant structures and “rules of engagement” between the
state-owned investment company and other sophisticated investors,
she said.
Profit Drop
The company has had an annual return of 16 percent since
its inception in 1974, according to its annual report in
September, down from 18 percent annualized it reported in August
2008.
Its net income fell a record 66 percent to S$6.2 billion in
the 12 months ended March 31, 2009, as a collapse in credit
markets drove down the value of its stakes in Bank of America
Corp. and Barclays Plc. The value of investments, which plunged
S$55 billion in the period, rebounded to S$172 billion as of
July 31.
Ong joined Temasek in 2002 from Deutsche Bank AG. He
started his career as an investment banker with Lazard Freres &
Co., according to Temasek’s Web site.
Temasek, which means sea-town in Javanese, is an ancient
name of Singapore dating from the 15th century.
Biggest Holder
Temasek, set up to foster the development of Singapore’s
banks, airlines and ports, is the biggest shareholder in five of
Singapore’s 10 biggest publicly traded companies by market value
including Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Southeast Asia’s
biggest phone company, and DBS, the region’s largest bank by
assets.
Hedge funds had their best annual performance in six years
in 2009. The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index, tracking more than
2,000 funds, rose 19 percent in 2009, according to Eurekahedge
Pte, a Singapore-based research firm. The annual return was the
highest since 2003, when the index rose 21 percent.
Hedge funds are private, largely unregulated pools of
capital whose managers can buy or sell any assets, bet on their
falling as well as rising values and participate substantially
in profits from money invested.
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Chua Mui Hoong or Rachel Chang,
can you do a indepth report on Shin Corp?
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If seatown is a hedge fund disguised as a global investment company i think we are not going to hear very much of seatown in the future. Most of their activities will be kept very quiet and below radar. Very likely we will have minimal and selective disclosure.
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Cruel
Ya. That affair is still on-going. I was told LHY and wife are on verge of getting divorce if it has not happened already.
LHY, unlike his elder borther LHL, has all along been quite rebellious to his father since younger days, even refusing to take up political office by joining PAP. He was once heard to have exclaimed to insides that “My father is my father, I am who I am”. Incidentally, LKY’s daughter LWL was also very rebellious in her younger days. However, she had simmered down a lot when she got older, and she has now been reconciled with her dad.
Thought you might want to know some of the information.
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The way Temasek & GIC holdings is managed by a father and daughter-in-law team while the son is the PM itself reminds me of Chen Shui Bian together with his wife, son, daughter, son-in-law and daughter-in-law all involved in the biggest money laundering scandal in Taiwan together with a complying judicial and prosecution system.
Is Singapore’s PM also in the same league, does anyone really know ? Remember nobody knew TT Durai’s shit until his scandal was exposed. Do we see any similar trend ?
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On hindsight, Thai ex-PM Thaksin was smarter and much more intelligent than Temaseks Ho Ching a million time.
Single handedly, Thaksin exploited the whole Temasek Holdings internal management weakness, and effectively used Goldman Sachs RO’s intimate connection with his brother, CO in Temasek.
Shin corp easily taken SILLY Temasek’s Ho Ching on a corkscrew ride. Taxpayers must blame Ho Ching for being careless.
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@NS Reservist / @dishonest
Yes, the RTAF is operating both F-5E and F-16 A/B (very early version of the F-16). We could have “sold” our very early version of the F-5E to them some time ago, but I think the F-16A/B “given” to them was fairly recent (like you said, in exchange from access to their air base for our training purposes). We now operate only the F-16C and D versions, which are the latest variants with very advanced avionics. The A/B are a bit obsolete compared to the C & D variants (which can fire the BVR medium range AIM-120 AMRAAM air to air missile like the F-15(E)SG presently in production for the RSAF.
And talking about the F-15, contrary to what was reported in the press about our recent purchase of these jets, the RSAF actually were operating 8 such aircraft (the original definitive model F-15E Strike Eagles) since 1994 ! These were hand me downs from the USAF and were acquired after the 1991 Gulf War when they proved to be very potent and reliable.
I used to see them flying off over my house from Tengah Air Base during the mid 90’s, usually flying in single formation one after another towards the South China Sea (for flight training purposes I believe). With their double 29,000 lbs. thrust engines, these were heavy machines having total thrust of almost 60,000 lbs (almost 4 times that of an F-5E). The recent publicly announced purchase of the F-15(E)SG was nothing more than to regularise our existing F-15 fleet while at the same time increasing the numbers with even later variants (the new ones have longer range APG radar and also newer and more efficient F-110 Pratt & Whitney engines (?).
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@NS Reservist / @Dishonest
When the Australians allowed us to use their facilities, our earlier F-15Es were transferred there. All the while all these jets were kept away from public mention (operated in secret) just like our 40 Centurion heavy tanks which were kept in Taiwan. Our government didn’t want our neighbouring countries to know of their existence.
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Darth Vader on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 12:32 am – “For everyone else’s information, Sea Town is probably a misspelling of Shi Town, as in “Death Town”.”
Think you missed the “t”, should be Shit Town.
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We were also told by PAP not to borrow to invest, why is Temasek raising bonds fund is the same as borrowing, and going into hedge funds is same as gambling. Invest within your means, warning or one day you will be in big shit.
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Looks like Singapore has been cheated, yet again.
The famiLEE is playing with tax payers money and using incompetant people in Temasek or GIC, supporting their own clan (dialect) group, even from Malaysia.
This world is so dirty. The only way for the people of singapore to find out whats been hidden away from you all these years is to boot out the ruling party and the new govt to call for an immediate all out investigation into each and everyone that is connected to this party. But I think by then most if not all of them would have packed and fled the nation to their foreign dream homes. This is what happened to Marcos and Suharto when their party collapsed, all their dirtiest things start to surfaced.
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10 Feb 2010:Goldman Sachs profited from sale of Shanghai plaza.
Just a little over two years after Goldman Sachs bought a Shanghai residential project for US$190 million, the Wall Street firm is now poised to sell it for US$328 million. A unit of the developer Shanghai Forte will buy Shanghai Garden Plaza for $328 million.
Comparing Goldman’s above deal making 72.6% profit to Temaseks Shin Corp and GICs stuyvesant town residential in NY loss.
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//get your facts right on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 1:30 pm
” our 40 Centurion heavy tanks which were kept in Taiwan. Our government didn’t want our neighbouring countries to know of their existence.”
Taiwan is like our military showroom for weaponary hardwares i.e. tanks, viking BVS10 armoured carrier, 150mm howtizer etc.
As Singapore is among the 4th largest military arms suppliers in the world.
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Sukhoi27
Right on man. You’ve got it.
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temasek buying Shin corp..
is as good as having another country SWF buying SgTel/Starhub/M1
sure the citizen will jump lar!
if u guys realised a trend… GIC can buy any other country telco (eg. Shin corp, Optus among others…) but our garmen wont allow another SWF to buy ours..
will other country ’song’ or not?
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//edwin on Wed, 17th Feb 2010 1:22 am
Awaiting to be ousted, Thaksin sold shin corp, a huge Thai conglomerates including AirAsia and the only private satellite to the new proud owner, Temasek.
Since the deal was done secretly, Temasek was accused of helping Thaksin to evade billion of $ taxes.
The Bangkok Posts reported the Thai Military complaining detection of tapping defend communications by the Singapore govt. The rest is history.
Thaksin is now economic adviser to Cambodia, and he might hve started connecting Temasek wanting to sell Cambodia’s assets too.
Besides MM Lee and Mahatir, Thaksin was once a very powerful leader in Asean. This is something lacking at moment.
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From record, GIC and Temasek are not answerable to anyone.
Both, GIC and Temasek have left the elected President, MAS and the people of Singapore all POWERLESS.
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When Ex President Ferdinand Marcos was ousted in 1986, the Philippines President transferred US$ billions into his Swiss account and other banks accounts overseas.
Till today, US$ billions of Philippines Reserves are still unaccounted for after more than 20 years.
Do you want this to happen to Singapore too?
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//Single Vote on Wed, 17th Feb 2010 6:28 am
//Defiant Leader on Wed, 17th Feb 2010 6:42 am
Fair comments.
Singaporeans must start learning something from history.
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“Do you want this to happen to Singapore too?”
What do you mean by whether we want this to happen ? For goodness’s sake, it already happen. You can’t ask the question when it already been answer.
Why do you think hundred of billions of state money goes unaccounted for under the Lee dynasty and the emperor ? And everyone who try to bring public meticulous audit to it will be either jailed, humiliated or demoted ?
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That infamous Charles Ong who screwed up big time with his ShinCorp engineered purchase from former Thai PM Thaksin should be given a medal for also being the main catalyst of the Thai Coup in 2006 that led to current turmoil for Thailand which would takes decade to heal due to the ruptured Thai society fabric currently. See today’s comment following the Thai Supreme Court Ruling yesterday:
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Chaisit feels sorry for Thaksin
Published: 27/02/2010 at 09:24 AM
Online news: Breakingnews
Former supreme commander Chaisit Shinawatra said on Saturday that he was sorry that the 46 billion baht in 0assets of his younger cousin, fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, were confiscated.
However, he said he accepts the court’s ruling.
Gen Chaisit said he had not talked with Thaksin as he did not want to bother the ex-premier who is sad over the verdict.
Asked about Thaksin’s declaration to continue fighting until he gets justice, Gen Chaisit said it is a personal matter of Thaksin and he could not give any comments.
He was confident that the red-shirt people group would not stage any demonstration for the time being as they all were shocked by the verdict.
The Supreme Court on Friday based its decision to seize 46 billion baht in
assets from Thaksin on the belief that he and his wife owned the Shin Corp shares up until they were sold to Temasek.
It also believed he abused his authority as prime minister by implementing policies which benefited Shin Corp.
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