Temasek buys 12% stake in Standard Chartered Bank

These people down south have a habit of doing things quietly. And they get the results.

We should learn from them especially on how to do things quietly but yet can still be successful.

I had the pleasure of visiting them a few years ago and was taken to a tour of their HQ in S'pore. One area that strikes me was how they manage their human capital so that their people will be at the fore-front of new developments in the industry i.e to become trend-setters instead of trend followers. From time to time they organise brainstorming sessions at the HQ and would call in their relevant GLCs to participate. For example, if they want to talk about fund raising, they would invite an expert to talk about the subject and then summon their finance heads from all GLCs to be involved. If they want to talk about HR matters, all HR heads from the GLCs are called in. For your info, an entire floor in their huge office is dedicated these theatrette-style rooms (like an MBA class) for these sessions.

In some countries, when you invite the head of a division of a GLC to attend a meeting, he simply delegates it to the 2nd in command. Then he or she will further delegate it to another person. Ultimately, the person who attends could be a junior executive who doesn't know head or tail of what the session is about. In the end, the discussion becomes a way street, instead of intended to be a meaningful discussion or a brainstorming session to generate new ideas.

Temasek buys 12% stake in Standard Chartered Bank

LONDON (Dow Jones)--State-controlled Singapore investment company Temasek Holdings Pte has acquired a 12% stake in London-based commercial bank Standard Chartered PLC from Malaysia's Khoo Teck Puat family.

Temasek bought 152.4 million Standard Chartered shares, bank spokesman Matthew Chan said.

"We are aware of the change in ownership of shares and we welcome Temasek as a long term investor," said Chan.

The Khoo family, Standard Chartered's single largest shareholder, has seen its holding increase in value by more than a third in the past five months as speculation has grown that it could be a takeover target.

The bank is an attractive asset given its broad exposure to emerging markets, which have once again become popular investment destinations in the past few years.

Ahead of the change-of-ownership announcement, Standard Chartered shares closed down 0.5%, or 7 pence, at 1523 pence.

Temasek's purchase of 152.4 million shares would be worth GBP2.32 billion.

In a joint statement, the Khoo family and Temasek said 152,399,222 shares, representing about 11.55% of Standard Chartered's share capital would be sold to Dover Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek.

This would be added to the 0.07% direct and indirect holding of Temasek in the bank.

The transaction is subject to "relevant regulatory approvals in certain jurisdictions," the statement added.

The transaction comes about two years after the death of family patriarch Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat, who first bought shares in Standard Chartered in 1986 as part of a "white knight" strategy to thwart a takeover attempt from Lloyds Bank of the U.K.

He continued to accumulate shares over the years becoming the bank's biggest shareholder.

Standard Chartered traces its banking history back more than 150 years and has a global network of about 1,200 branches, including subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures, spread across 56 countries, according to its Web site.

In the year to December 31, 2005, the bank posted a 19% rise in pre-tax profit to $2.68 billion.

Standard Chartered is listed on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges.