Temasek hunts for domestic-focused bets with geopolitical tensions rising

DOHA – Temasek will target to invest in companies with large, domestic-focused businesses as it seeks to avoid risks tied to simmering geopolitical tensions around the world.

The company is looking to place such bets in countries with fast-growing economies, chief investment officer Rohit Sipahimalani said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Qatar on May 14.

The Singapore state-owned investor views geopolitics as one of the biggest risks to its portfolio at the moment.

“Geopolitics and the impact of that,” said Mr Sipahimalani, who is in the Gulf nation to attend the Qatar Economic Forum. “We are addressing that by looking really at large domestic markets or things that are self contained within an economic ecosystem so we’re less impacted by that. So I think that should be okay.”

Temasek’s investment portfolio totalled $382 billion as at March 31, 2023. The company is an investor in some of the world’s most global firms, including Standard Chartered, a London-based lender that is one of the largest European banks operating in emerging markets and makes almost all of its money in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

It remains heavily invested in Chinese companies even as Asia’s biggest economy comes under pressure from a housing slump and mounting geopolitical tensions with the US. The firm led by chief executive officer Dilhan Pillay had 22 per cent of its portfolio invested in the nation as at March 2023.

Mr Sipahimalani, who became CIO in January 2020, said the company believes in consumer-focused companies in China, like beverage makers or providers of durable goods. BLOOMBERG