Former GIC investment chief Ng Kok Song ‘deliberating’ bid for Singapore presidency

FORMER GIC chief investment officer Ng Kok Song said on Saturday (Jul 15) that he is “deliberating” a run for the presidency.

Responding to queries from The Straits Times, Ng, 75, said: “It is an issue of great national importance and there will be immense personal implications. I am still deliberating.”

An online report on Friday had put forth his name as a potential candidate in the upcoming presidential election.

Ng’s remarks come more than a month after entrepreneur George Goh said on Jun 12 that he intended to contest in the upcoming presidential election. Former Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam had earlier declared his bid on Jun 8 and resigned from the government and People’s Action Party on Jul 7.

Incumbent President Halimah Yacob has said she will not stand for re-election when her term ends on Sep 13.

Ng retired from GIC – Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund – in 2013 after 27 years there.

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He is currently the executive chairman of investment firm Avanda Investment Management, which he co-founded with two former GIC colleagues in 2015.

Avanda has turned a profit in the last three financial years from 2020 to 2022, according to documents obtained by ST from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority.

It has had an average of about S$73 million in shareholder equity in the last three years.

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Ng joined the public service in 1970 as an investment analyst with the Finance Ministry after graduating with a physics degree from the University of Singapore.

The Public Service Commission scholarship recipient then moved to the Monetary Authority of Singapore a year later when it was formed.

In 1986, five years after GIC was formed, Ng joined it to head the equities and bonds department and was the fund’s first non-expatriate director. In 2007, he was made GIC’s first group chief investment officer – a post he held till he retired in 2013.

Ng was also the founder and chairman of the Singapore International Monetary Exchange in 1984, which was later incorporated into the Singapore Exchange as its derivatives arm.

Candidates interested in running for the presidency have been able to collect forms from the Elections Department or its website since Jun 13. THE STRAITS TIMES