Singapore GIC to invest in US$6b TPG fund: report
By CHUANG PECK MING
THE Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), which has taken significant stakes in UBS and Citigroup, is reportedly going to be the lead investor in a US$6 billion fund set up by global private equity firm TPG to invest in troubled financial companies.
A GIC spokeswoman had no comment yesterday, after a report in Britain’s Financial Times (FT) newspaper said GIC will commit US$2 billion to US$3 billion to the new financial opportunities fund. BT understands it is still not a done-deal.
TPG, formerly known as Texas Pacific Group, which has offices in cities around the world including Singapore, is no stranger to Singapore’s GIC sovereign wealth fund headed by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
In December last year, GIC was reported to be pumping US$1.5 billion into a US$20 billion fund being raised by TPG, whose founders David Bonderman and James Coulter have a long history of successful contrarian investments.
Founded in 1992, TPG - which declined to comment yesterday - has more than US$30 billion under management.
‘We manage a family of funds including private equity, venture capital and public equity and debt investing,’ the firm says on its website.
GIC’s reported move to invest in a TPG fund to bail out distressed financial firms comes barely two weeks after GIC deputy chairman Tony Tan told BT that after pumping US$9.75 billion into UBS and US$6.88 billion into Citigroup, GIC could invest in another troubled bank if the deal is worthwhile.
According to yesterday’s FT report, filed from New York, GIC and other Asian and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds that have been investing directly in ailing banks are taking an indirect route through TPG to deflect growing criticism of such funds - and avoid a political backlash.
The TPG fund is being marketed exclusively to a handful of the world’s largest sovereign wealth and pension funds, FT reported, quoting sources ‘familiar with the matter’.
According to the report, the State Administration for Foreign Exchange, an arm of the Chinese government with responsibility for managing the country’s US$1.53 trillion of foreign exchange reserves, may also take part in the fund.
Funds in the Middle East and some of TPG’s long-term core investors like Calpers and Calstrs, the big Californian public sector and teachers’ pension funds, may also invest.
China Investment Corporation, which is tipped to invest US$4 billion in a similar fund being raised by US private equity group JC Flowers, originally considered putting money in the TPG fund.
But it was able to get more favourable terms from Flowers, according to the FT report.
Source : Business Times - 15 Feb 2008
Singapore Property - Buy , Sell , Rent , Invest
Mindy Yong
(+65)91002985
mindy@mindyyong.com
http://www.hotvictory.com
Bargain hunting starts in tepid property market »« Unexpected fall in new US jobless claims - WASHINGTON
