Finally..

Excerpt from Business Times 5 Mar 09:

25% lopped off GIC's portfolio: MM

<(SINGAPORE) The portfolio of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) has shrunk by about 25 per cent from its peak, partly because it went in too early to buy into once-prized global banks. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew - who is also GIC chairman - disclosed the extent of the sovereign wealth fund's loss in a candid interview with Reuters released yesterday. Fielding questions later from guests at a Thomson Reuters dialogue where he was the guest of honour, Mr Lee said GIC bought into global banks UBS and Citigroup 'too early'. Both banks were clobbered by the financial meltdown that gathered pace in the second half of last year. Unfortunately, GIC had made its moves well before that, buying into UBS in December 2007 and picking up its Citi stake in January last year - months before the real decline set in. Ironically, GIC had foreseen a plunge in the equity market and had pared its equity holdings before the crisis from about 60 per cent of the portfolio to 45-50 per cent. 'We became cash-rich and when the market fell, we went into UBS and Citi,' he said. 'But we went in too early. That's part of the ride.'>

So finally, it is "clear" how much we lost. Not too bad, it seems, 25%. But is it really this amount? I guess we will never know. This brings to mind, however, something I had read earlier:

The un-reported Lim Hwee Hua - GIC episode (as witnessed at a Parliamentary session)
<...Of course, these little observations are what spiced up the trip to the Parliament, but the main thing I get from being there, instead of relying on mainstream media, are the un-reported stuff.

That day happened to be the day when the budget for Ministry of Finance was debated. Many MPs, including Ms Sylvia Lim, filed ‘cuts’ asking the Ministry of Finance to disclose how much reserve Singapore still has, and how much losses have the 2 SWFs - GIC and Temasek incurred.

Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, SMS (Senior Minister of State, and yes, they used this acronym there) for Finance, read her reply from her file, and gave a fluent answer (re-hashing) of the Government’s stand on why we should not disclose the amount of reserves we have, and that the SWFs did not do as badly as the various indices tracking the similiar markets.

She also added that Temasek Holding’s portfolio fell 31%. When it was time for clarification questions, Ms Sylvia Lim rose to ask about the exact figure for losses incurred by GIC, since no specific number was quoted, while the 31% was disclosed for Temasek. Mrs Lim Hwee Hua was stumped for words for a few seconds, stammered a little, mumbled something about “it was reported during the budget debate last week”, while frantically flipping her file infront of her to look for an answer. Sylvia Lim spread her hands in a gesture asking “what number”, and Lim Hwee Hua, after not being able to give a specific number, suddenly succumbed and threw out a number, “41%”. The Speaker was nice to Lim Hwee Hua, seeing that she was not very sure of the number herself, and asked if she wants to clarify the number later. She took the opportunity, and since it was also time for the recess at 1520hrs, the Speaker declared that the Parliament go into recess.>

So better not to listen to these MPs. Wait for the official word by the Sage.