1) Why does Temasek issue bonds?

We issue Temasek Bonds as public markers of our credit quality. They expand our stakeholder base, enhance our capital efficiency and increase our funding flexibility.

2) What were the proceeds of Temasek’s bond issues used for?

The proceeds were used to fund the ordinary course of business of Temasek and our investment holding companies.

3) How many bonds has Temasek issued under the Medium Term Note programme?

To date, we have 11 outstanding Temasek Bonds in Singapore dollars, US dollars and British pounds sterling.

The total outstanding is about S$10 billion (US$8 billion), with debt maturity of up to 2050, and a weighted average maturity of about 16 years.

Our Temasek Bonds also helps to establish our yield curves in Singapore dollar, US dollar and British pound sterling.

4) Why did Temasek establish a Euro-commercial Paper Programme?

Our US$5 billion Euro-commercial Paper Programme was established in February 2011 to complement the longer dated Temasek Bonds under our Global Guaranteed Medium Term Note Programme. Together, these debt issuance programmes form the major building blocks of our financing framework.

More details on our Financing Framework can be found here.

5) Does Temasek have any benchmarks or targets for gearing and other credit ratios?

Temasek has a conservative gearing stance, and closed the financial year ended 31 March 2011 with a net cash position as an investment company.

We are triple-A rated by both Moody’s and S&P.

While we do not have target ratios, we have operated within the boundaries of our triple-A rating.

For instance, Moody’s latest rating report (November 2010) has characterised Temasek’s total debt/equity ratio as well below 30%, with the funds from operations at the holding company level consistently exceeding 10-15x coverage of the interest expense.

Temasek’s credit rating reports can be found at here.

6) Is Temasek’s AAA/Aaa rating on a standalone basis?

Moody’s has assigned Temasek a standalone credit rating of “Aaa”, and an overall corporate credit rating of “Aaa”.

Standard & Poor’s has factored in Temasek’s standalone credit profile of “aaa”, and assigned an overall credit rating of “AAA”.

Temasek’s credit rating reports can be found here.

7) Does Temasek pay dividends to its shareholder?

Our Board recommends our annual dividend for our shareholder’s consideration at our annual AGM.

Our annual dividend recommendation aims to balance distributions to our shareholder and reinvestments to sustain future returns.

8) Does the shareholder inject capital into Temasek?

Our shareholder has injected assets from time to time into Temasek as part of our shareholder’s own asset allocation.

9) Do the financials in the Temasek Review and Offering Circular reflect Temasek’s performance as an investment company?

The financials in the Temasek Review and Offering Circular are the consolidated group financials of Temasek and our subsidiaries, based on accounting requirements.

Our annual Temasek Review also reports on Temasek’s overall performance as an investment company, such as our total returns to our shareholder over various time periods.

10) Does Temasek guarantee its portfolio companies’ debts?

As a policy, Temasek does not guarantee the financial obligations of our portfolio companies.