An ST Forumer who goes by the name Alfred Chan Hock Yuen recently submitted a letter to ST Forum, calling for more public discourse on how well has Singapore investment company Temasek fared over the years and how will it perform in the long run.
The letter, titled ‘How has Temasek done compared with others?‘ was published earlier on Saturday (17 July).
In his letter, Mr Chan cited an earlier report stating that Temasek recorded its highest one-year shareholder return since 2010.
The company’s one-year return for shareholders came in at 24.53 per cent, which is quite a significant turnaround from last year’s minus 2.28 per cent.
Temasek’s portfolio was valued at a record $381 billion as of 31 March this year, up from $306 billion a year before.
“A one-year return of 24.5 per cent sounds impressive until one realises that, over the same one-year period to March 31, the MSCI World Index went up by about 45 per cent,” said Mr Chan.
“The world markets have recovered massively over the past year or so and, as they say, a rising tide lifts all boats,” he added.
Mr Chan went on to say that it is also interesting that Temasek’s total shareholder return for the past decade to 31 March last year was five per cent per annum.
“Over this same period, the MSCI World Index went up by an average of about 7 per cent per annum,” he explained.
With this in mind, Mr Chan expressed his curiosity on how well has Temasek performed over the years and how will the company’s future performance be.
“The questions I would like to ask are: ‘How well has Temasek really been doing over the years? Is it reasonable to expect Temasek to at least beat the relevant market indices over the long run?’
“I hope there can be more public discourse on these questions,” he wrote.