SINGAPORE'S investment firm Temasek Holdings has hired the deputy chief executive of Singapore Technologies Engineering as a senior managing director to look at investment opportunities in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector.

Mr Seah Moon Ming, an electronics engineer by training who oversaw four business units at ST Engineering, will be part of a new "enterprise development group" formed under Mr Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Mr Sandrasegara is building a team that will look at new areas of growth outside of traditional investments in companies that come under the purview of its investment team, the sources said. The enterprise unit was formed earlier this month.

"We can confirm that Seah Moon Ming will join Temasek as senior managing director, special projects, on March 1, 2013," Temasek said in a statement to Reuters. "Moon Ming will be leading an initiative to establish a new business entity focusing on opportunities in the LNG sector which is expected to grow in Asia."

Temasek, which manages about S$198 billion, has been boosting investments in the energy sector, which accounted for 6 per cent of its portfolio in its last financial year that ended in March, up from 3 per cent a year earlier.

Financial services still account for 31 per cent of Temasek's portfolio, including sizeable stakes in DBS Group Holdings and Standard Chartered.

The latest move to look for opportunities in the LNG sector comes a few months after China Investment Corp and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp pumped around US$500 million (S$620 million) each into US-based Cheniere Energy Partners.

Temasek has seen a number of new hires in the past two years, mainly investment bankers such as former UBS chief financial officer John Cryan.