Temasek, Singapore’s $130bn sovereign wealth fund, said Tuesday it is raising its stake in Merrill Lynch and has “great confidence”’ in Merrill’s CEO John Thain, reports Bloomberg. Temasek, already Merrill’s biggest shareholder, received US antitrust approval on Tuesday and will raise its stake to between 13% and 14% from the current 9.4%. The FT reports that earlier Tuesday, Temasek said that full-year net profits doubled to a record S$18.2bn ($12.8bn) and defended its strategy of investing in Merrill and Barclays, insisting it still saw value in US and UK financial stocks. However, the group warned of possible losses in its asset values for the financial year through March 2009 on renewed market volatility. Read more about Temasek’s appetite for investment banks on FT Alphaville.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 5:38 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A. Tagged with merrill lynch, Temasek. Edit this entry.