The chairman of the Singapore government's main investment holding unit has attacked the practice of quarterly reporting for listed companies ahead of its introduction next year.
S. Dhanabalan, chairman of Temasek, said yesterday that issuing three-monthly updates on corporate performance did not improve transparency but did encourage investors to take a damagingly short-term view of their equity holdings.
Mr Dhanabalan is one of the most influential public figures in Singapore and held a string of senior cabinet positions in the 1980s and 1990s. Temasek, a unit of the finance ministry, controls many of Singapore's largest listed companies, including DBS Group and Singapore Airlines.
'I am dismayed that we in Singapore have decided to impose this practice [of quarterly reporting] on listed stocks,' he said in a speech at a conference on corporate governance. 'We seem to have tilted in favour of traders in stocks, rather than investors in stocks.'
It is extremely rare for members of Singapore's tight-knit establishment to air disagreements about public policy.
The finance ministry, which controls Temasek, said last month it had accepted proposals to make quarterly reporting compulsory for listed companies from January. Those with a market capitalisation of less than S$20 million (about HK$87.5) have a year's grace but must also start to file quarterly figures from 2004.