For the FY2026 ended March 31, strong performances from the TPCs helped push Temasek’s net portfolio value (NPV) to a record $518 billion on a mark-to-market (MTM) basis. TPCs made up 43% of Temasek’s total portfolio at the year-end with a consolidated revenue of about $200 billion, up from last year’s 41% and aggregate revenue of some $150 billion.
The ecosystem-wide effort two years ago, marked by the $6.5 billion Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP) and other measures, has helped lift the local stock market to new highs after years stuck sideways. The rally was first led by blue chips — including several of the TPCs — but many small and mid caps were not too far behind.
As at March 31, DBS shares closed at $56.90, up from $46.47 as at March 28, 2025. Keppel’s shares closed at $11.77 at the end of March, up from $6.90 nearly a year ago. Meanwhile, Singtel’s shares stood at $4.94 as at March 31, up from $3.43 on March 28, 2025. ST Engineering also outperformed, closing at $10.81 as at March 31, up from $6.79 on March 28, 2025.
The returns were not only via capital gains; the hefty — and growing — dividends paid by the TPCs helped as well. Up to March 31, DBS paid total dividends of $2.85 per share from its 4QFY2025 final dividend — paid out in April 2025 — to its 3QFY2026 dividend, paid in November 2025. Keppel paid 47 cents in FY2025, 38% higher y-o-y. Singtel increased its dividend for the year ended March 31 to 18.5 cents from 17 cents in the previous year, while ST Engineering paid 23 cents in FY2025, up from 17 cents in FY2024. Sembcorp raised its total dividend to 25 cents in FY2025, up from 23 cents in FY2024.
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Png Chin Yee, president of Temasek Singapore, which oversees the TPCs, describes Temasek as a “receiver” of dividends rather than a determinant of them. How much a TPC pays out is left to that company’s board and management, says Png, who will be relinquishing her other hat as the chief financial officer from Oct 1 onwards to Wendy Koh, previously of Mapletree Investments.
That said, Png says it is “important” for the boards and management of TPCs to consider their different policies and the growth of the business they want to fund, and to retain capital for that purpose rather than return excess capital to shareholders. Given this, Png acknowledges that the TPCs have been in a “very fortunate position where they do have excess capital to distribute to shareholders”.
Temasek, she adds, is “very happy to support companies who want to retain capital for growth if they feel that they can actually put the capital to good use and generate a return which can reward shareholders. So actually, we’re very open to that as well.” Temasek served as the ultimate backer when SIA raised $15 billion to stay afloat during the pandemic.
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‘We wish we had all this power’
As part of the market review measures, there has been a call to have more interesting new listings to liven up the market. While there have been more IPOs than in the previous couple of years, post-listing performance has been lacklustre.
At least two Temasek-backed firms have come to market or are on their way. 65 Equity Partners-backed UltraGreen.ai raised some US$400 million from its December 20215 listing. It listed at US$1.45 but closed at US$1.27 on July 8. SeaTown-backed Foundation Healthcare Holdings, which raised $242 million with its 76-cent-per-share offering, closed at 70 cents on its July 8 trading debut. When asked, Gabriel Lim, executive director and CEO of Seviora Holdings, which oversees SeaTown, says it was “premature” to say if there is a need to worry.
Even so, the pipeline of Temasek-backed listings marks a shift from its neutral tone a year ago. When asked about the EQDP at last year’s Temasek Review, Png said then: “With both supply side and demand side measures, hopefully, this will create a virtuous cycle to make the Singapore market more vibrant, and when the market is more buoyant, obviously it can attract more people to list here”.
Temasek still holds several unlisted TPCs, among them Mapletree Investments, PSA International and SP Group.
Even as Temasek’s management has stuck firmly to its long-held open stance that the individual portfolio companies run their own businesses, the market assumes otherwise — and indeed expects Temasek to play an active role in effecting changes, even if not openly.
When asked about yet another bout of merger rumours between Mapletree and CLI, Temasek kept to its standard line that it does not direct the boards and management of “any of” the companies, says Alpin Mehta, head, private equity capital solutions, Temasek Partnership Solutions. “We [leave it to] them to make decisions which are in the best interest of their shareholders, so that’s best addressed to those management teams,” says Mehta, who double-hats as the head of real estate of Temasek Global Investments.
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Png took a similar line when asked whether Temasek could have made Keppel sell its telco M1 to StarHub, another TPC, rather than Simba. The deal has been scuppered by the regulators, setting back much-needed market repair. Nonetheless, she lets on that the potential consolidation of telcos was “very well flagged” and that “in a market like Singapore, some consolidation may be helpful”.
“I mean, we wish we had all this power to make things happen,” adds Chia Song Hwee, CEO of Temasek Global Investments.
Looking ahead
In August 2025, Temasek announced that it would restructure and establish three entities to manage its three portfolio segments — TPCs, global direct investments (GDIs), and partnerships, funds, and asset management companies (PFAs).
The restructuring will see three wholly owned entities manage these segments. Temasek Singapore will oversee TPCs, Temasek Global Investments for GDIs and Temasek Partnership Solutions for PFAs. The changes came into effect on April 1.
Png says the overall direction is to build a portfolio of globally competitive and future-ready companies. To do so, each TPC needs to have strong boards and a strong management team, she says.
“One of the things that we actually do is to actively engage our company to look for talent and to scout talent, so that we make sure that boards and management teams have the requisite breadth and depth.”
While Temasek does not direct the companies, it works with them on issues such as operational excellence, sustainability and strategic business transformation through AI, among others.
“One big thing that we talk about with AI is also making sure that the workforce is ready, and the workforce is upskilled and reskilled for the new job roles that we see ahead, and the opportunities ahead,” she continues. “So, I think we work quite comprehensively with our TPC boards and management on some of these issues that we hope will help them to be much more future-ready and sort of create value for all of us in the long term.”
“This is not something new from the restructuring; we’ve been doing that for a few years, but the engagement certainly, I think, has intensified with time,” says Png.
