STAM bets big on India and China

Singapore-based fund managers ST Asset Management (STAM) has been mandated by Japan's Daiwa Securities to invest a kitty of $500 million in India and China.

STAM's president and chief executive officer Goh Mui Hong said on Wednesday that the company had been on the look out for "growth" companies which have the potential to go public in the coming years.

Goh said the company would invest in the manufacturing, automobile components, service and infrastructure sectors.

"We will be interested in picking up equity stakes in these companies to give them the necessary boost in their growth stage and will exit at an opportune time," she explained.

STAM had recently infused $3 million into the Pune-based auto components manufacturer, Uma Precision, as its first investment.

"We have $500 million corpus in a ratio of 40:60 between India and China. We will reverse this proportion if the right opportunities come by," she clarified, adding that the fund is a close-ended one with a maturity time of seven years. STAM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek

Holdings Pte of Singapore which is owned by the government of Singapore.

STAM has recently received the Foreign Venture Capital Investor (FVCI) status from the government of India.