She may have a 1st class honours from NUS and a Masters from Stanford both in Electrical Engineering, but she is no financial pundit. She worked as a civil servant and later as a corporate head in Singapore. She has no experience in international finance and has no foreign exposure. Yet, she is made head of an investment firm with a fund size of more than S$100 billion.
Worst still, she is not too risk-averse. So, what do you expect the results to be? She bought Shin Corp in 2006 and loss big. She has no experience in US dealing and wheeling and yet she spent billions buying Merrill Lynch. The firm has been absorbed by Bank of America and the price of BoA shares is in the dumps.
Temasek lost S$58 billions in the eight months from March to November 2008. The value of its portfolio declined by 31% from S$185 billion to S$127 billion. But the investment in Merril Lynch is close to being wipe off. Can you attribute this all to poor market timing? What about incompetency?
