Temasek invests in ICICI

Temasek Holdings bought shares in ICICI Bank Ltd, India’s largest private-sector lender by assets, as the nation’s central bank pushes lenders to clean up bad debts that have weighed on earnings.

The Singapore state-owned investor bought 2.55 million American depositary receipts of ICICI in the second quarter, worth US$18 million (Bt622 million, S$24.1 million) at the end of June, according to a filing on Monday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Temasek also acquired stakes in US aircraft-parts manufacturer B/E Aerospace Inc and emerged as a shareholder in biotech firm Intellia Therapeutics Inc, which had its initial public offering in May.
The filing showed Temasek’s 2 per cent stake in B/E Aerospace was valued at US$98 million as of June and its 790,527 shares in Intellia were worth US$17 million. Since its May public listing, Intellia’s shares are up 5.2 per cent.
The filing also detailed Temasek’s increased stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, valued at US$4.3 billion at the end of June. Temasek last month reported the first decline of its portfolio in seven years as its holdings were battered by last year’s market rout. The value of its assets decreased 9 per cent to S$242 billion for its fiscal year ended March 31.
Temasek added to its investments in India after outgoing Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan set lenders a March 2017 deadline to rid their balance sheets of bad debt, which have curbed their ability to extend loans. The proportion of Indian banks’ stressed assets, which include restructured and soured loans, to total advances surged to a 16-year high of 11.5 per cent as of March 31, RBI data show. - THE STRAITS TIMES