Temasek's proactive moves on S'pore assets sweeten SGX's prospects

SINGAPORE investment firm Temasek Holdings' recently-announced partial bid for control of Keppel Corp - with an eye on possibly revamping its varied businesses to extract more value - is a shot in the arm for the languishing Singapore bourse, for which returns have been dismal since the 2008 global financial crisis.

More importantly, Temasek's move is a wake up call for companies in its stable to abandon complacency and reposition themselves to keep up with overarching global trends and powerful forces of disruption, on top of dealing with competitive pressures.

Temasek now owns 20.4 per cent of Keppel. If its S$4.1 billion bid to gain 51 per cent of the homegrown conglomerate pans out, a "comprehensive strategic review" will follow suit to create sustainable shareholder value. This opens the door to bigger things, and may also signal that keeping the status quo is not a preferred route for a company with slipping revenues and net profits that have halved since 2014 amid a downturn in the oil-and-gas sector.