Singapore Sovereign Fund Wants To Buy Into More Banks

Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings said on today its assets rose 13 per cent in the year to March 2008 and it was prepared to invest more money in Western banks if the opportunity arose.

”Growing with our blue chip companies and our direct investment activities, Temasek now owns a net portfolio of about S$185 bn (US$131bn) at market value as at 31 March 2008,” Chairman S Dhanabalan said in a speech to a group of Singapore entrepreneurs.

He added that the Singapore fund, which already owns large stakes in lenders such as Merrill Lynch and Barclays, would look at opportunities to buy more shares in Western banks.

Report: Sovereign Fund To Be Major Buyer of Foreclosed U.S. Homes

NyPo reports:

One sovereign fund, said to have earmarked $29 billion to purchase foreclosed residential real estate, recently hired a West Coast mortgage broker and is starting to search for bargains...

The search is concentrating on single- and multi-family REO (real estate owned) homes, or homes that have already been taken over by the mortgagee...

A sovereign fund would have two distinct advantages over other investors - the depressed value of the US dollar makes the homes a bargain, and sovereign funds have deeper pockets.

The sovereign fund of Abu Dhabi, for example, has a reported $875 billion in assets, while Norway has $391 billion, Singapore has $303 billion and Kuwait has $264 billion in their sovereign funds...

At $200,000 per house, $29 billion buys 145,000 homes. The current inventory of homes for sale is just over 4 million.