(MENAFN- AFP) Singapore state investment giant Temasek Holdings said Tuesday its global portfolio rose to a record Sg$223 billion ($179 billion) in the year to March, despite slower asset growth due mainly to weak Asian markets.
The firm said in a statement the value of its total holdings rose 3.7 percent or Sg$8 billion in the period, less than half the 8.6 percent growth rate seen in the financial year 2012-2013.
Its 10-year total shareholder return rate, which includes dividends it pays to the Singapore government and excludes capital injections it receives, stood at nine percent.
Temasek said it had capitalised on a re-adjusting global economy in the aftermath of a crippling financial crisis in 2009 to boost investments last year.
It made a total of Sg$24 billion in investments while divesting Sg$10 billion worth of assets.
"This year has been one of our most active years for new investment - the most active since the Global Financial Crisis," Temasek chairman Lim Boon Heng said in the statement.
Lim said the investments were "driven by softer Asian markets of interest, as well as the continued recovery of the global economy."
Its new investments include a nearly $1 billion stake in US-based biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences and a $500 million stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific, a laboratory equipment manufacturer.
Temasek also increased its existing holdings in Asian insurance provider AIA and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. In addition, it bought a 1.1 percent stake in Britain's Lloyds Banking Group.
In the energy sector, it invested 235 million pounds ($401 million) in British oil and gas firm BG Group, and Sg$2.0 billion in its wholly-owned subsidiary Pavilion Energy.
"We have invested in opportunities that are driven by urbanisation and increasing life expectancies," said Lee Theng Kiat, Temasek's president.
Lee said half of Temasek's new investments were in Asia "as weakness in the growth markets gave us various opportunities to add to the positions we like."
Europe and North America accounted for about 40 percent of new investments, he added.
Financial services continue to make up a majority of Temasek's portfolio at 30 percent, down from 31 percent last year. Temasek attributed the drop to the softening value of bank stocks.
Asia remained the anchor of its investments, with the region accounting for 72 percent of its underlying assets.
Singapore accounted for 31 percent of the investment giant's assets, China 25 percent, Australia ten percent, while exposure in Europe and North America was at 14 percent.
Temasek, which commemorates its 40th anniversary this year, is one of Singapore's two sovereign wealth firms, and owns majority stakes in the city-state's biggest firms including Singapore Telecom and Singapore Airlines.
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