Temasek companies get a makeover

One after another, Temasek-linked companies have come under some form of restructuring or M&A exercise. What are the reasons behind it and which are the next likely candidates?

Sometimes, investment decisions are about making hard-nosed choices, especially when a business faces an existential threat. From CapitaLand and Singapore Airlines to Sembcorp Marine and Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), there now appears to be a discernible shift in the logic behind the M&A or restructuring activities of companies linked to Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, otherwise known as Temasek-linked companies or TLCs: Survival is now the name of the game.

According to Thilan Wickramasinghe, Singapore’s head of research at Maybank Kim Eng, the ongoing slew of corporate restructuring and M&A activities, in general, is “hyper-accelerated” because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Operating environments are permanently and structurally changing,” he says. “This has created a crunch for businesses to adapt and realign their strategies to stay relevant while also ensuring long-term growth,” he adds.

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