Looks like the buy and hold strategy worked out for Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, after it notched a $1.6 billion profit on a partial sale of its Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) stake. The Government of Singapore Investment Corp., or GIC reduced its holding of Citi to 5% from 9%, exchanging its $6.88 billion of convertible preferred stock for Citigroup common stock, it said in a
statement. The conversion price was $3.25 per share.
In addition to the sale, GIC can boast of a $1.6 billion paper profit on its remaining stake, according to
Bloomberg.
Although Citigroup itself remains mired in toxic assets, GIC's investment in the bank has fared far better than the investments of other sovereign wealth funds in the financial sector.
A different Singapore wealth fund, Temasek Holdings Pte., took a hit on the sale of its stakes in Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) and Barclays plc (NYSE:BCS). The Singapore government-controlled entity was Merrill Lynch & Co.'s largest shareholder with a 7.5% stake at the time it was purchased by BofA. Temasek had put $5 billion into Merrill at $48 a share between December and February, but a
reset payment and additional $900 million averaged out the fund's buy-in price to only $23.11 a share, based on
Bloomberg calculations from exchange filings. Bank of America's original stock offer came in at $29 a share, giving Temasek a $1.5 billion profit, but the markets weren't kind to the stocks of either BofA or Merrill, which continued to fall before the deal closed, leaving Temasek's investment in the
loss column.
For its part, China's sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp.
hasn't been swayed by its investments in Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) still being under water. The fund is doubling down on private equity, hedge funds and fund-of-funds investments in hopes of capitalizing in 2008's drop in valuations. In spite of the fund's $297.5 billion portfolio losing 2.1% in 2008, CIC said that it plans on investing $6 billion in hedge funds by the end of 2009.
In June, CIC put
$500 million into a Blackstone hedge fund unit and bought another $1.2 billion of Morgan Stanley's stock. The fund had famously paid $3 billion for a 9.9% stake in Blackstone right before the private equity firm's 2007 IPO, only to see the value of its stake get crushed when the credit crisis set in and large LBO activity ground to a halt. CIC later increased its stake to 12.5%. Shares of Blackstone closed at $14.89 on Friday, off more than 50% from their IPO price of $31. Morgan Stanley currently trades at $32.53, topping the $28 to $31 range it saw in June. -
George White
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