SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore wealth fund GIC said U.S. government bonds remain a safe investment despite fears of a looming debt default, but noted longer-term concerns about fiscal strains in the U.S. and Europe were prompting it to shift more money into emerging markets.

GIC, the world’s eighth-largest sovereign fund with an estimated $300 billion in assets, said U.S. Treasuries “are still in global terms the most liquid and safe assets”, despite uncertainty over whether Washington can gain control over its spending in the long run.

SINGAPORE, July 26 (Reuters) – Singapore wealth fund GIC,
one of the largest shareholders in UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(UBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and
Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), plans to invest more money in emerging markets
and less in developed markets due to the long-term challenges
facing the United States and Europe.

Over the 12 months to end-March 2011, GIC increased its
exposure to emerging market equities to 15 percent of its
portfolio from 10 percent, GIC said in a statement.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch praised wealthy Singapore for paying its ministers big salaries to avoid corruption, but a government-appointed committee in the Southeast Asian city-state is reviewing the million-dollar packages because of public anger.

“If you look at the most open and clear society in the world which is Singapore, where every minister gets a million dollars a year and the prime minister a lot more, there’s no temptation,” the 80-year-old tycoon said in a dig at British lawmakers while giving evidence to a parliamentary committee.

SINGAPORE, July 19 (Reuters) – The head of the Temasek
unit that invested in Asian banks such as China
Construction Bank and India’s ICICI is
stepping down in the latest of senior management changes
involving the Singapore state investor.

Fullerton Financial Holdings CEO Francis Rozario is leaving
at the end of July and will replaced be Temasek senior managing
director Gan Chee Yen, a spokesman for the Singapore investor
told Reuters in an email on Tuesday.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Allegations of fraud and accounting irregularities at Chinese companies are likely to continue for at least the near term and the accusations may hamper the firms’ access to funds regardless of the claims’ merit, Fitch Ratings said.

A string of fraud allegations against Chinese companies listed in North America, often made by investors shorting the stock involved, has sparked a sell-off in China-related equities.

SINGAPORE, July 18 (Reuters) – Allegations of fraud and
accounting irregularities at Chinese companies are likely to
continue for at least the near term and the accusations may
hamper the firms’ access to funds regardless of the claims’
merit, Fitch Ratings said.

A string of fraud allegations against Chinese companies
listed in North America, often made by investors shorting the
stock involved, has sparked a sell-off in China-related
equities.

SINGAPORE, July 14 (Reuters) – Singapore’s Lion Global
Investors, which manages about S$29 billion ($24 billion), said
on Thursday it was turning bullish on Indian stocks and
Wednesday’s bomb attacks in the country’s financial capital
would not change its view.

Like many investors, Lion Global has been underweight India
for several months on concerns about rising inflation and the
recent corruption scandals affecting the government.

SINGAPORE, June 28 (Reuters) – Singapore said on Tuesday it
will make its banks hold higher capital levels than those set
out under the new Basel III regulations, imposing some of the
toughest new banking rules unveiled so far across the globe.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) intends to make
its local banks hold a higher level of top quality capital as a
proportion of their risk-weighted assets than was agreed on by
banking regulators in Basel.

SINGAPORE, Jun 28 (Reuters) – Non-performing loans (NPLs) at
Chinese banks could rise to be worth 5 percent of total lending
from around 1 percent currently, but will not affect their
credit ratings, Moody’s Investors Service said on Tuesday.

Soured loans for local government projects and the real
estate sector are the main culprits for the expected rise in NPL
ratios in the world’s second largest economy, but they will
unlikely result in systemic problems for China.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore is benefiting from a shortage of office space in Hong Kong as multinational companies expanding in Asia turn increasingly to the Southeast Asian city-state for their regional bases, property developers and consultants said.

They said that while rents are soaring in both cities, there is a much larger supply of new office developments coming up in Singapore to cater to the growing demand. In contrast, firms wishing to expand in Hong Kong will either have to outbid other prospective tenants or move out of the city center.