Temasek

So Ho Ching has finally stepped down.

http://in.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idINTRE5152VT20090206
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=am4yMINfiRLI&refer=home

Well, even if "Temasek Chairman S. Dhanabalan said Ho's decision to step down was not linked to performance, and it was too early to determine if investments made in the last two years would lose out in the long-term", I still think otherwise.

An excerpt from the Bloomberg article:
"Along with China Development Bank Corp., Temasek paid 3.6 billion euros ($4.6 billion) in 2007 for a 5.2 percent stake in Barclays and added another 4.5 billion pounds in June at about half the price. Barclays’ share price plunged nearly 66 percent since June."

Assuming other investments are similar to the Barclays' deal, share prices have to triple just for Temasek to break even.

Even if Temasek focuses on long-term returns, to bet on current share prices to beat 300% is still difficult. And one more thing to take note is that most of its investments are in large cap companies, which are unlikely to grow at spectacular rates.