by REUTERS

SINGAPORE • Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd is likely to book a record S$300 billion (RM892.95 billion) for the value of its portfolio, powered by gains in DBS Group Ltd and Chinese banks, while it steps up investment in tech start-ups.

At the same time, Temasek is swooping in on opportunistic purchases with its stake buy in Swiss-based airline caterer Gategroup Holding AG, weeks after an announced move to buy into Hainan Airlines Holding Co Ltd. Both firms are part of China’s debt-saddled HNA Group Co Ltd.

Analysts estimate Temasek, the top investor in about a third of companies in Singapore’s Straits Times index, to report a net portfolio value of about S$300 billion for the year ended March 31, up roughly 9% versus a nearly 14% increase to S$275 billion a year earlier.

Temasek will give details of its performance this week.

“Last year was a good year across all asset classes and across the world. A rise in its portfolio value to above S$300 billion is quite doable,” said Song Seng Wun, an economist at CIMB Private Banking.

Last month, Temasek and GIC Pte Ltd, Singapore’s bigger state fund, featured among main investors in a record-setting US$14 billion (RM56.57 billion) fundraising by China’s Ant Financial Services Group.

Temasek also put more money into online Chinese services firm Meituan Dianping last year.

Veljko Fotak, an assistant professor of international finance at the University at Buffalo in the US, said despite Temasek’s renewed emphasis on the tech sector, it is “at the same time, keeping its feet well on the ground, investing in real estate and infrastructure worldwide”.

In the past year, Temasek benefitted from a 42% surge in shares of DBS, while in Hong Kong, China Construction Bank Corp and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd rose 29% and over 32% respectively.