Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Temasek bullish on mining

mining

SINGAPORE sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings wants to increase its exposure to mining in Mongolia and is also looking for opportunities to invest in the mining sector in Africa.

'We made investments in Mongolia and we are fairly bullish about Mongolia,' said Mr Nagi Hamiyeh, managing director of investments at Temasek, on the sidelines of a mining conference in Singapore on Tuesday.

'We believe that Mongolia is starting its journey in the mining space so that would be one of the many countries that we would look at.' Mongolia is treading cautiously as it taps its huge mineral wealth.

Temasek was one of the cornerstone investors for the $439 million Hong Kong IPO of Mongolia-focused miner SouthGobi Energy Resources in January. It also holds a stake worth $150 million in Lung Ming, which owns and operates the Eruu Gol iron ore mine in Mongolia, according to its latest annual report.

But Temasek has not been as aggressive as sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC), which has invested billions of dollars in resources deals in Indonesia, Singapore and Mongolia.

Temasek CEO Ho Ching said last year that the state investor was interested in resources as an asset class. Energy and resources made up just 5 per cent of Temasek's portfolio, as of March 2009. It managed $122 billion in total as of end-July. -- THOMSON REUTERS

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