By P.R. Venkat And Gaurav Raghuvanshi
SINGAPORE-- Ho Ching, the chief executive of Temasek Holdings
Pte Ltd. is going on a three-month sabbatical, but the
state-investment firm said that her planned leave of absence wasn't
linked to any retirement plans.
Ms Ho, 62, is the wife of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong and has been running the state firm since 2004. Lee Kuan Yew,
the founder of modern Singapore and Ms. Ho's father-in-law, died on
March 23 aged 91.
Set up in 1974 to hold government assets in domestic companies
including national carrier Singapore Airlines, Temasek has under
Ms. Ho's leadership branched out to hold stakes in big global
companies, including having the single largest stake among
shareholders of emerging markets lender Standard Chartered PLC.
Temasek manages a portfolio of S$223 billion (US$164 billion) in
assets as of March 31, and is one of the world's biggest
state-investment funds alongside Singapore sovereign wealth firm
GIC Pte Ltd.
Ms. Ho will continue with her board duties while on leave,
Temasek said in a statement on its website, without elaborating
about when the sabbatical will begin.
The unexpected news of Ms. Ho's leave of absence fueled some
speculation among analysts that the chief executive may soon
retire.
In February 2009, Temasek appointed Charles "Chip" W. Goodyear
to succeed Ms. Ho , but that attempt ended in embarrassment for the
state firm when the former chief executive of mining giant BHP
Billiton Ltd. left three months before being officially made head.
Mr. Goodyear held the role of CEO-designate less than five months
before his departure in July 2009, which Temasek said at the point
was due to differences on "certain strategic issues." Ms. Ho had
said then that Mr. Goodyear's move to part ways with the state firm
was "mutual and amicable."
Temasek has since then maintained that it continues to review
the process of its chief executive succession every year, in a
practice first proposed by Ms. Ho in 2005.
"Temasek has an annual review process for CEO succession at our
board. Ho Ching first proposed this to Temasek chairman when she
took over as CEO, and this has been institutionalized since 2005 as
part of our annual Board agenda," a Temasek spokeswoman said in a
statement Wednesday,
The investment firm has been among the most active deal makers
in Asia in the past year. It spent US$5.7 billion, its single
biggest investment ever, to acquire an almost 25% stake in Hong
Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's retail unit A.S. Watson & Co.,
which has drugstore chains in the U.K. and Hong Kong. Temasek also
has investments in some of China's biggest banks, such as
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest
bank by assets, and life insurer Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of
China.
Lee Theng Kiat, president of Temasek, will stand in for Ms. Ho
during her absence, Temasek said in its website Monday. Mr. Lee
joined Temasek in 2012, and was chief executive of Singapore
Technologies Telemedia, a strategic investor in communications,
media and technology firms, before that.
Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com and Gaurav Raghuvanshi
at gaurav.raghuvanshi@wsj.com
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