Weekly Digest: CIC's carbon neutrality plans; Temasek's majority stake in hospital chain

TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK

China Investment Corporation (CIC) has released an action plan for operational carbon neutrality, including purchasing green electricity and green certificates to reduce power consumption, reducing unnecessary printing, and encouraging employees to be green travellers and commuters.

This is a “vital measure” for the company to implement the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, following the issuance of the sustainable investment policy and the guidelines on attaining carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals and practicing sustainable investing in the past two years, the sovereign wealth fund said in a statement.

Source: China Investment Corporation

Singapore-based investment fund Temasek said it is acquiring an additional 41% stake in India's Manipal Health Enterprises from investors including TPG, boosting its stake in one of the country's largest hospital chains to 59%.

While Manipal did not specify the deal value, Temasek has paid about $2 billion for the additional stake, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Manipal did not immediately respond to a query seeking comment.

Source: Reuters

OTHER INVESTMENT NEWS

CHINA

Ping An Insurance, China's largest insurer by market value, has applied to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a dual currency counter.

The addition of a renminbi counter will enable investors to trade the company's shares in yuan, in addition to the Hong Kong dollar.

The move follows similar dual-counter applications made by a number of major companies including insurer AIA Group and Tencent, among others.

In late 2022, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange said it would introduce a dual counter trading model from the first half of 2023 which would allow investors to interchange securities listed in both Hong Kong dollars and renminbi counters.

Source: Reuters

HONG KONG

Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) -- Hong Kong’s retirement scheme that covers 4.7 million members in the city -- reported its best first-quarter result in four years.

The 413 investment funds under MPF earned a combined HK$42.7 billion ($5.4 billion) in the first three months of the year, or HK$9,100, for each member, according to data provided by MPF Ratings on April 6.

Despite the recent banking crisis in the US and Europe, all fund categories reported a profit, while their average return stood at 4.1% for the three months, the best quarterly result since the first quarter of 2019, when the averate return was 7.53%.

MPF’s total assets under management rose by nearly 5.4% to HK$1.09 trillion at the end of March from HK$1.05 trillion at the end of 2022, according to MPF Ratings’ estimates.

Source: MPF Ratings

KOREA

Sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) changed its rules and policies to enable it to invest in the foreign subsidiaries of South Korean companies.

This change is because South Korean companies’ cross-border mergers and acquisitions are rising and their investments in startups overseas have also climbed.

KIC is seeking overseas investment opportunities in cooperation with domestic financial institutions.

Source: BusinessKorea

The National Pension Service (NPS) and Korea Investment Private Equity Company (KIPE) are set to sell off their stake in a Brazilian rare metal mining firm, seeking a fund liquidation 12 years after the investment, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The two institutional investors have tapped Credit Suisse as the lead manager for the divestment of preferred shares in Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineracao (CBMM).

The firm is the world’s leading supplier of niobium, an element used in alloys for jet engines, rockets, beams for buildings and oil pipelines.

NPS and KIPE had teamed up with steel giant POSCO in 2011 to acquire a 5% stake in CBMM for $650 million in order to secure the raw material and a stable dividend yield.

Source: Korea Economic Daily

MALAYSIA

The Malaysian government needs to carefully weigh the risks of allowing members of a national pension fund to use their savings as “support” to secure personal loans, experts have said, as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pushes ahead with the plan to help households in financial distress from the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is one of several measures that the government is considering to help households get back on their feet without allowing further withdrawals from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), the government said.

Source: SCMP

Sovereign fund Khazanah has sold its entire stake in Iskandar Malaysia Studios Sdn Bhd (IMS), the operating company of Iskandar Malaysia Studios.

The operating company is based in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

Khazanah said  its wholly-owned special purpose vehicle, Granatum Ventures Sdn Bhd, has entered into a definitive share sale agreement to divest its shares in IMS to Studio Management Services Sdn Bhd -- a consortium led by IMS’s current Malaysian management team in partnership with a regional player, GHY Culture & Media Holding Co. and its subsidiary, GHY Culture & Media (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.

Source: Khazanah

PHILIPPINES

State-run pension fund manager Social Security System has tapped a unit of Security Bank Corp. to manage 2 billion Philippines pesos ($36.6 million approximately) worth of funds over the next three years.

This comes after Security Bank’s Trust and Asset Management Group topped a three-month rigorous bidding process, in which several local fund managers in the Philippines participated.

The funds will be managed by the listed bank’s Trust group and covers a P1.5 billion balanced fund mandate and P1 billion pure fixed income fund mandate.

Source: Philippine Star

SINGAPORE

GIC and Nasdaq-listed Pagaya Technologies, a technology company creating artificial intelligence infrastructure for the financial ecosystem, have strengthened their strategic partnership.

GIC and Pagaya extended their existing funding agreement, under which GIC invests in the company’s financing vehicles for an additional three years on top of the original five-year term, on the same terms as the existing agreement.

Additionally, GIC increased its holding of PGY Class A ordinary shares to approximately 9% of Pagaya’s outstanding Class A shares as of March 31, 2023.

GIC is one of Pagaya’s top shareholders.

Source: GIC

TAIWAN

Insurance veteran Evan Greenberg has called on the US to “tone down rhetoric and symbolism around Taiwan” and focus on preserving peace and stability in the region, in the latest sign of how deepening geopolitical divisions are worrying corporate leaders.

Greenberg, who built New York-listed Chubb to become one of the world’s biggest insurers, devoted part of his annual letter to shareholders to US-China relations.

The chief executive called the tensions over Taiwan “the most proximate risk of conflict” for the relationship between the two superpowers, as Beijing presses its claims over Taipei and Washington encourages the island to strengthen its defences.

“We should, however, tone down rhetoric and symbolism around Taiwan,” Greenberg wrote in the letter, which was filed with regulators on Monday.

“Supporting Taiwan as a demonstration of opposition to China does not improve America’s national security; it just raises China’s insecurity and feeds its impulses to overreact to Taiwan-related events.”

Source: Financial Times

Ultra-rich Taiwanese are looking at opening family offices in Singapore to protect their wealth, as Taiwan becomes a flashpoint in deteriorating US-China ties.

Abner Koh, executive director for private client services (tax) at BDO Tax Advisory, said BDO is seeing an “upsurge” in inquiries from the ultra-rich in Taiwan about setting up family offices – private firms for the very rich to manage their wealth and assets.

Koh is personally handling up to 15 such cases, he said to a Singapore media outlet.

Source: Straits Times