Ho Ching, boss of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, will retire in October

Ho Ching, the chief executive of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, will retire in October after 17 years at the helm of the sovereign investment company, now one of the world’s biggest investors. Ho, the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, will be succeeded by Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegera – the current chief executive of Temasek International. Company chairman Lim Boon Heng said in a statement that “leadership succession” was a strategic responsibility of its board, adding that Ho was “very much” part of the process that led to Sandrasegera’s appointment. “Indeed, she has been very active, working over the years to identify various potential successors both inside and outside of Temasek,” said Lim, a former minister and member of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). When Ho Ching posts on Facebook, Singapore pays attention. Is that a problem? “She has also played a key role in nurturing a strong leadership bench in Temasek, several of whom have gone on to CEO appointments beyond Temasek.” Ho, 67, will also step down from her role as executive director on Temasek’s board. In the company statement, Ho said she believed her successor would take Temasek “to the next level”. She said the former high-flying corporate lawyer “brings solid values, a decade of experience in the firm, on top of a wealth of experience prior to joining Temasek”. Sandrasegera and his team “have already been making a huge difference in embracing a future that brings both threats and opportunities: threats that have been accentuated by this pandemic, but also opportunities which are greatly expanded and even accelerated by Covid,” she said. Speculation about succession in Temasek, which has controlling stakes in many of the country’s major companies – including DBS Bank, Singtel and Singapore Airlines – has been circulating for years. Ho began her career at Singapore’s Ministry of Defence, where she met Prime Minister Lee, a former military brigadier-general. She subsequently joined the state-owned Singapore Technologies in 1987, where she rose rapidly and played a major part in the firm’s diversification and restructuring. She joined Temasek in 2002 and was appointed chief executive two years later. Temasek in its statement highlighted that the company’s portfolio has more than tripled during Ho’s tenure from S$90 billion (US$67 billion) in 2004 to more than S$300 billion currently, despite the impact of the Global Financial Crisis and Covid-19. Returns from Temasek and GIC – the country’s other sovereign wealth vehicle – have over the years become a vital part of the city state’s annual revenue. Since 2016, so-called net investment returns contribution (NIRC) from the two firms and the foreign reserves held by the central bank has been the single biggest contributor to the government’s budget. The NIRC amounted to S$17 billion in 2019. Ho’s tenure as Temasek chief has not been without controversy, however. In 2006, Temasek’s US$3.8 billion investment in the Thai telecoms firm Shin Corp – then owned by the family of the incumbent prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra – ignited a firestorm in the kingdom, which eventually led to Thaksin being overthrown via a military coup. Rosmah Mansor, Ho Ching: BFFs? You must be kidding! The company in 2009 lined up Charles “Chip” Goodyear to replace Ho but after serving a short stint as CEO-designate the former chief of BHP Billiton left the company, with Temasek saying there were differences between the US national and the firm. Ho subsequently continued as chief executive. The government and Lee – son of the country’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew – have in the past reacted forcefully to questions about a potential conflict of interest. Lee, his predecessor Goh Chok Tong – who was in power when Ho joined Temasek in 2002 – and the late Lee Kuan Yew have won libel suits against international news outlets that accused them of nepotism. In recent years, Temasek’s policy of not disclosing the salaries of Ho and other top executives has also become a source of angst among government critics. Prime Minister Lee’s government has maintained that it has an “arms-length” relationship with the two state investors and does not interfere in salary decisions. Singapore’s Lee urges China to ‘recalibrate’ for global good Temasek last April rebuffed speculation that Ho earned S$100 million a year, saying the claim was false and Ho’s annual compensation was “neither the highest within Temasek, nor is she among the top five highest-paid executives” in the company. Political risk analyst Hasan Jafri, who previously served as Temasek’s director of strategic and public affairs as well as director of its Middle East and Africa market, said he saw “first-hand and up close” Ho’s efforts to build a “world-class, robust and resilient institution” and embed long-term and “institution-first thinking” in the company. “The incredibly hard stuff that every CEO desires but many fall short of accomplishing. That’s the equity Dilhan will take to the next level,” Jafri wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “Dilhan has incredible energy and strategic vision and he is a team and institution builder. He will take a strong Temasek forward, one that Ho Ching has spent two decades building.”