Temasek sets up an Asian focused investment firm
SOVEREIGN wealth fund Temasek Holdings yesterday confirmed that it is setting up a new global investment firm called Seatown, which will be headed by its chief strategist Charles Ong.
Seatown – the English translation of Temasek – is expected to have an investment capital of around $3bn (£1.9bn) to be invested in emerging markets with a focus on Asia. The funds for the new company will partly come from the money that Temasek raised from its recently increased $10bn bond programme. Ong, a former banker at Lazard Freres & Co and Deutsche Bank, has been with Temasek since 2002. Nasser A. Ahmad, who was a chief investment officer and managing partner of DiMaio Ahmad Capital in New York, will be co-chief executive of the firm.
Temasek had $121bn under management as of July 2009.