Once this cat comes out; my feel is, it will be difficult for them to put it back in the bag again.

Very difficult

SD

I think the “elite” in Temasek and GIC have been exposed as “just ordinary, mediocre investors” full stop and worse. Like you and me, we do not have the vast resources and mighty financial power at the disposal of these two organizations. These resources have been squandered on suspect investments and by suspect talents.

Take the ABC Learning investment as an example. When the shares were crashing last year, Temasek poured millions $ more by buying up shares forced sold by banks owned by executive directors (practically all their shareholdings) at close to 10-20% of Temasek’s investments. Thinking that it was still a good investment and a great opportunity to average down.

Due to their failure in research and management, losses were increased unneccessarily. At that time, it was widely reported that ABC Learning’s leveraged overseas investments were under the spotlight by hedge funds. In addition, hedge funds were shorting ABC Learning shares with the knowledge that executive directors’ own shareholdings were leveraged via margin financing. It was a house of cards built on high gearing by the founders.

With this example, how can we compete with the likes of WB and John Paulson? Their research and knowledge are so fundamental and so close to the ground. Temasek’s and GIC’s are more akin to desk-top research and based on current group-think.

This is utter failure. So dismal and so unqualified that an admission has to come and soon.

For someone like John Paulson, he wouldn’t want to work for organization. The real geniuses know that they work best by themselves and gain best for themselves… like the Joker in the Dark Knight. But of course, monetary gains is not Joker’s aim.

Termasek just have to admit that it is the best among the average instead of the best of the best. Hyper-marketing is one thing that Singaporeans are really good at, as I observed (no offense).