Temasek Holdings FY07 earnings drop 29 pc

Singapore, Aug 2 (UNI) Singapore investment corporation, Temasek Holdings, today said its earnings dropped by 29 per cent to 9.1 billion Singapore dollars for the year ended March 31, 2007, but the value of its portfolio increased by 27 per cent to 164 billion Singapore dollars, 27 per cent higher than the previous year.

Temasek invested nearly 16 billion Singapore dollars in the last financial year and divested assets worth more than 5 billion Singapore dollars.

But Temasek said the earnings were still strong, despite being taking a cautious outlook of the market.

The drop in net profit was partly due to an impairment charge on Temasek's stake in the Shin Corp, a telecom group in Thailand.

Temasek booked a loss of 830 million Singapore dollars from its associated companies, which include Shin Corp.

Temasek's managing director for portfolio management Mr Ng Yat Chung said, ''We believe that the free flow of investments across countries is beneficial to economies and to consumers. We'd be very disappointed, I think, if the current debate on sovereign wealth funds eventually leads to imposition of protectionist measures against free flow of investments.'' Though Temasek has been seeking investments outside Asia, it remained concerned about the growing protectionism in Europe and the United States which could impede its expansion.

UNI