Temasek names Ding China head to expand long-term presence: Update

Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s state-owned investment company, named China International Capital Corp.’s Ding Wei as country head to grow its business in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

Ding, 51, who was responsible for CICC’s investment banking business, will join Temasek on Feb. 28 as it expands holdings in Asia outside Singapore and Japan. The region made up 46% of the company’s $186 billion portfolio in the year ended March, up from 43% a year earlier, according to its website.

 

The investment firm owns stakes in Bank of China and China Construction Bank Corp., two of the three-largest banks in the nation, whose $5.88 trillion economy overtook Japan as the world’s second largest. China’s foreign-direct investment climbed 23.4% to US$10 billion ($12.8 billion) in January, adding to record inflows of US$105.7 billion last year.

 

Ding will join as a “key member of our leadership team to anchor our long-term presence in China,” Chief Executive Officer Ho Ching said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday.

 

Ding couldn’t be reached at CICC and didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail to his office seeking a comment. He said in the statement that he wants to grow Temasek’s “significant China portfolio” further.

 

Temasek bought Bank of America Corp.’s share of China Construction’s $9.2 billion rights offer in November. Other holdings include a US$35 million investment last year in Tudou.com, China’s second-largest online video website, and China ITS (Holdings) Co., an information technology provider.

HIDDEN WEALTH

The number of individuals in China with personal wealth of 10 million yuan ($1.92 million) rose 6.1% last year to 875,000, according to the annual Hurun Wealth Report released in April. Households hide as much as 9.3 trillion yuan of income that’s not reported in official figures, according to a study conducted for Credit Suisse Group AG and published by the China Reform Foundation in August.

 

China became the world’s No. 2 economy after Japan’s gross domestic product fell an annualized 1.1% in the fourth quarter, the Japanese government said earlier this month. The International Monetary Fund estimates the Chinese economy will grow 9.6% this year, six times faster than Japan.

 

China “is not just important to Temasek, it’s important globally,” said Lee King Fuei, a Singapore-based money manager at Schroders Plc, which managed $286 billion as of September. “If you look at the GDP contribution to global GDP from China, it has gone up a lot over the last few years and the projection is it will continue to grow. It’s probably the right thing to have someone focused on that particular country.”

 

DEUSCHE BANK STINT

Ding was Deutsche Bank AG’s chief country officer for China from 1999 to 2002, and worked at the World Bank for 12 years before that. He received his economics doctorate as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Texas in Austin, and also undertook executive management training at Harvard University, according to Temasek’s statement.

 

Ding will be supported by Cheo Hock Kuan, co-head for China, and will replace Gan Chee Yen, who will take on the new appointment as senior managing director of special projects.