Temasek unveils co-investment vehicle Astrea II

Retail bond offerings underway.

Singapore investment company Temasek has launched Astrea II, a co-investment vehicle with broadly diversified holdings in 36 private equity funds. Temasek is the single largest investor in Astrea II at 38%.
Astrea II is the latest of Temasek's continuing efforts to develop co-investment platforms where diversified portfolios of assets can be made available to a broader base of investors, including retail investors in the long term.

Mr Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, Head of Enterprise Development Group in Temasek, said, “Temasek continues to be an active investor in high quality private equity or PE funds globally. These investments have created value for us in the form of direct returns, as well as opportunities for us to make further direct investments alongside the PE fund managers."

An active investor in private equity funds globally for over two decades, Temasek had earlier sponsored Astrea I in 2006 with a diversified and balanced portfolio of selected Temasek interests in high quality private equity funds. Astrea I was intended as the first of a series of private equity co-investment platforms.

Mr Sandrasegara added, “Launching Astrea I in 2006 gave us an opportunity to start exploring how to broaden our co-investor base, starting with long term institutional investors. With the world recovering from the troughs of the global financial crisis, we assessed that it was timely for the next Astrea co-investment product, and are now very pleased to have six high quality and like-minded long term institutional co-investors with us in the Astrea II portfolio."

Like Astrea I, Astrea II comprises a carefully selected portfolio of good quality private equity funds, balanced across vintages, geographies and sectors.

ARDIAN, a global private investment company and leading secondary fund manager, is one of the six co-investors in Astrea II. Ardian provided an independent valuation of the Astrea II portfolio to be set for all investors, and has been appointed General Partner and Manager of Astrea II.

Mr Sandrasegara, elaborating on Temasek’s continued interest to invest in private equity funds, said, “Temasek will remain actively engaged with the PE funds that have been injected into the Astrea II platform. Outside of Astrea II, we continue to manage a large and growing portfolio of private equity fund interests. 

We are very pleased with the excellent relationships we have with the General Partners of these top quality PE funds. We have stepped up our engagement with them, especially over the last couple of years, to explore new opportunities and models for private equity investments. Our strategy for investing in private equity funds is, and will continue to be, an important complement to Temasek’s direct investing activities."

Mr Lee Theng Kiat, President of Temasek, explained, "One of Temasek’s long held aspirations is to have long term minded retail investors, especially retail investors in Singapore, co-invest alongside us. We are naturally mindful of their risk return preferences. This is why we hope to start by offering Temasek Bonds to retail investors, when there is a suitable opportunity to do so, and phase in higher risk return investment opportunities at a later stage."

“Platforms such as Astrea I and Astrea II are part of our phased approach to developing co-investment products,” Mr Lee continued, “They help us test market interest and fine tune our thinking and product positioning for eventual participation by retail investors.

When we are ready to launch suitable products for the retail market, we hope that retail investors in Singapore will welcome such opportunities to co-invest with us."

Temasek reported a total portfolio value of S$215 billion as at 31 March 2013, and remains primarily a direct equity investor with about 10% of its portfolio in third party managed funds.