StockNews - Temasek buys Standard Chartered stake

In a private deal yesterday, Singapore government-backed private investment holding company Temasek Holdings purchased 11.55% of Standard Chartered (Stanchart) from the estate of late Singaporean tycoon Khoo Teck Puat. The stake is estimated to be worth up to S$6.5 billion in value based on the last traded price of Stanchart. Temasek Holdings which manages around US$50 billion in assets and investments, sees this latest acquisition as a strategic investment due to Stanchart's huge Pan-Asian network as well as its branches in emerging economies of China and India. On top of that, Temasek presently has huge stakes in the Asian banking industry with the company holding around a third of DBS Bank, and large stakes in Korean and Indonesian banks.

The acquisition will also dispel rumours of a possible takeover of Stanchart by foreign multinational players like Barclays, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup which was known to be keen in purchasing the stakes held by the late Khoo Teck Puat as well.