SINGAPORE: Singapore's giant state investment firm Temasek Holdings is "still excited about the China market", a senior executive said, even as investing in the world's No.2 economy has become more challenging amid a slowdown and tension with the West.
Speaking at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore on Wednesday, Temasek's head of China, Yibing Wu, said he sees attractive opportunities in China in areas such as advanced manufacturing and energy transition.
"While people tend to look at the weakness in the traditional sectors such as the traditional manufacturing or real estate, and then people tend to overlook that these emerging sectors," Wu said.
China makes up 22% of the portfolio of Temasek, which is ranked among the top 10 investors in the world with net portfolio value of S$382 billion ($281 billion) as at March 2023, according to its website.
Its investments include Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com , tech giant Alibaba and China's second largest lender China Construction Bank.
Meanwhile, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC is "doubling down" on certain sectors in China that it likes, said CEO Lim Chow Kiat.
"We think China is definitely investable," he said at the same summit. "For example, there are certain sectors in China which are world leading, green technology."
China has been losing its shine among global investors, weighed by the nation's faltering economic recovery and tensions with the U.S. over trade, technology and relations with Taiwan.
China's authorities in recent weeks have rolled out a series of measures, such as easing borrowing rules, to support its debt-riddled property sector, which has been on a downward spiral since 2021.
Chen Long, co-founder and managing partner of Chinese independent research firm Plenum, said he sees a good case scenario of the housing correction in China being done at some point next year and the economy stabilising.
"We're now seeing several tailwinds already," he said at the summit. "The PPI (producer price index) starts to recover, the industrial profits start to recover coming out from the bottom," he said, adding that commodities have started to do well. "We started to see a little bit signs that maybe we're close to bottom," Chen said. - Reuters
