Singapore recruits a heavy hitter to run one of its sovereign-wealth funds
新加坡政府雇佣一名重量级选手来运营其主权财富基金
“THIS is a win-win, home-run opportunity.” With that technocratic mouthful, Charles “Chip” Goodyear demonstrated his credentials for his new job as chief executive of Temasek, one of Singapore’s two sovereign-wealth funds. Mr Goodyear, the American former boss of BHP Billiton, a mining giant, will in October replace Ho Ching, who has been in place since 2004 and is the wife of the prime minister. A third of Temasek’s staff are expatriates but since its creation in 1974, it has never been led by a foreigner.
“这是一个双赢的完美结果” 查尔斯•其坡•固特异先生对他出任新加坡淡马锡首席执行官的评价，淡马锡是新加坡两个主权财富基金之一。固特异先生是美籍前矿业巨头必和必拓的老板，他将在今年10月替代何晶出任淡马锡首席执行官，何晶从2004年来一直担任此职务，她是现任新加坡总理的夫人。虽然淡马锡的员工有三分之一是外国侨民，但自从1974年成立以来，第一次由外籍人士出任此最高职务。
The sceptic’s explanation for this unexpected change might be that Temasek has lost a lot of money. Four days after Mr Goodyear’s appointment the government said Temasek’s assets had fallen from S$185 billion ($134 billion) at the end of last March, to S$127 billion ($84 billion) at the end of November. There have been big, poorly timed equity injections into Barclays and Merrill Lynch. Indeed, adding in the stakes bought in UBS and Citigroup by Singapore’s other sovereign fund, GIC, the city-state has bet the equivalent of 13% of its GDP on bailing out four struggling Western banks: by any standard, a mistake.
此次出人意料的人事变更是有一定原因的，淡马锡的资产近来大幅缩水可能是其中之一。在宣布固特异先生的任命四天后，新加坡政府公布淡马锡去年11月份的总资产1270亿新加坡币（约合840亿美元），而去年3月份的资产是1850亿新加坡币（折合1340亿美元）。主要的原因是在错误的时间对巴克莱银行和美林证券注资，如果再算上另一家主权基金购买USB银行和花旗银行的股份的话，新加坡这个城市国家已经花费了GDP的13%来救赎四家危机重重的西方银行，现在从任何标准来看，这都是一个错误。
Yet Temasek’s overall performance has been merely mediocre rather than abysmal—the 37% drop in dollar terms over eight months is exactly in line with the MSCI world share index. Temasek’s three biggest investments, in China Construction Bank, Standard Chartered and Bank of China, have performed relatively well. The fund’s balance-sheet remains solid and the share of Singaporean assets has shrunk to a third, from half in early 2005. Mr Goodyear says he began negotiations 15 months ago, giving credence to Temasek’s claim that his appointment is not a knee-jerk reaction to a few dodgy investments.
根据MSCI世界股票指数数据，淡马锡以美元来计算的话，在过去8个月资产缩水了37%。这样的表现还不至于太糟糕，应该算是业绩平平，淡马锡的三项最大的投资：入资中国建设银行，渣打银行和中国银行，其投资收益都还不错。淡马锡的财务报表看起来还可以，从2005年早先以来已经缩水了三分之一。固特异先生说他和新加坡政府的谈判在15个月之前已经开始了，强调这次人事更替不简单是对目前投资失误而作出的仓促决定。
That being so what does Mr Goodyear bring? He won plaudits for his stint at BHP Billiton and has a deep knowledge of commodities, in which Temasek is underweight. Decades of financial experience help too—“the common denominator of business is numbers,” he says. But most important, Mr Goodyear is the kind of A-list executive who will help persuade the countries receiving potential investment that Temasek really is independent of the government. That Mr Goodyear’s appointment was a surprise goes a long way to explaining why it makes sense.
那么，固特异先生能带来些什么新东西呢？除了在必和必拓公司出色的表现，他对大宗商品也有深刻的认识，这正是淡马锡所需要的。数十年的金融历练使得他认识到“商业其实就是关于数字的游戏”。更为重要的是，固特异先生是世界顶级的首席执行官，这样一个人物可以让淡马锡在投资一些国家的时候不会被认为有新加坡政府的影子。不过，固特异先生要想证明自己的作用，恐怕还需要时间的考验。
