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Singapore sovereign investor Temasek expands to San Francisco

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Singapore sovereign wealth investor Temasek has launched a San Francisco office to follow up expansions into London and New York three years ago.

Temasek said its expanded North American presence reflected the growing investment opportunities in the region, and added that San Francisco would collaborate closely with its New York, Mexico City and Sao Paulo branches.

Temasek Holding chairman Lim Boon Heng said, “Many companies we look at here in the US are developing products and services that cater to users beyond the domestic market.

“They play to the changes in demographics in places like Asia and Latin America.

“We see a continuing focus on sectors that are a natural complement to what this region does well – technology, life sciences, and particularly, the congruence of the two.”

Since being founded in 1974 Temasek has grown from its initial portfolio of mostly Singapore companies to become a global investor with $180bn under management.

US investment to date include Verily Life Sciences, a life sciences research and engineering organisation owned by Alphabet Inc, VoloAgri, a developer of high value proprietary hybrid vegetable seeds, and digital payment major PayPal.

Temasek’s joint head of North America, John Vaske, emphasised that the Bay area offers tremendous opportunities.

He said, “We recognise that opportunities arising from the East Coast and the West Coast are diverse and unique, and have always intended to have an office in San Francisco alongside our New York office.

“We have been stepping up our US investments, and our exposure to North America has grown to 10 per cent of our portfolio as of March 31, 2016.

“The opening of our San Francisco office comes at a time where we see increasing opportunities in areas such as technology, healthcare, life sciences and agriculture, as well as early stage investments.”

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