Temasek CEO to quit

07 February 2009

Temasek Holdings, the $134-billion Singapore sovereign wealth fund will have a new CEO as Ho Ching, who has been at the helm for seven years, will step down on 1 October 2009, making way for the former CEO of the Australian mining giant, BHP Billiton, Chip Goodyear.

From being a low-key investment fund that mainly invested in Singapore, the Ho Ching years has seen the fund slowly moving first to Asia and later the OECD countries and in the recent past, to China, the US and Europe.

Ho Ching, the wife of Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, joined Temasek in 2002 as a director; moved up as executive director the same year and in 2004 became executive director and CEO.

Her silent but aggressive business strategies in the last six years has yielded immense value for Temasek as it saw its portfolio value surging from approx $60 billion in 2003 to approximately $185 billion as on 31 March 2008.

During her tenure, Temasek ventured into China and invested in two large state-owned banks, China Construction Bank and Bank of China and privately owned Mingsheng Bank.

Following the acquisition of a 5.2-per cent stake in ICICI Bank, the Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, an investment company, has decided to focus on India. (See: Temasek to focus on India)