Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has announced Lim Chow Kiat, currently its Deputy Group President and the Group Chief Investment Officer, will take on the position of Chief Executive Officer with effect from Jan 1 next year. Lim Siong Guan will retire as Group President and be appointed Advisor to the GIC Group Executive Committee. On his retirement, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the chairman of GIC, said,
As group president since 2007, Mr Lim Siong Guan has made enormous contributions to GIC. He groomed a new generation of professional leaders, built up a fit and flexible organizational structure, and imbued the GIC team with sound values and ideals. Mr Lim’s time at GIC coincided with an extremely challenging period for global markets. His leadership enabled GIC to work cohesively towards a shared and worthy goal – to steward and invest our foreign reserves wisely and prudently, for the benefit of present and future generations of Singaporeans.
Lim in the statement exuded confidence in Kiat saying he is happy to hand over the reins of leading GIC to Chow Kiat. The leadership changes come as GIC suspects record-low interest rates and feeble global growth will weigh on investment returns in the coming decade. In July, in its annual report, GIC observed a decline in the key measure of returns from 4.9 percent to 4 percent in the 20-year period for FY 2015-16, as global stock markets witnessed mundane performance and bond returns fell.
GIC announced several other appointments in the official release. Jeffrey Jaensubhakij will take over as Group Chief Investment Officer relinquishing his current roles of Deputy Group Chief Investment Officer and President of Public Markets.
Other senior leadership transitions include Lim Kee Chong being designated as President (Americas), based in New York. He will also remain as Deputy Group Chief Investment Officer and Director, Integrated Strategies Group.
Tay Lim Hock will be appointed Deputy Group Chief Investment Officer, and take on the concurrent appointment of President (Europe), based in London. He will also Advisor, Private Equity and Infrastructure, and relinquish his current role as President, Private Equity and Infrastructure. Goh Kok Huat will continue as Chief Operating Officer, with his concurrent appointment as Advisor, Real Estate. He will relinquish his current role as President, Real Estate. The titles of president of public markets, president of private equity and infrastructure, and president of real estate will be longer in use.
Not revealing the exact size of its assets, the fund manages well over $100 billion assets under management with its portfolio distributed across developed market equities, emerging market equities, nominal bonds and cash, inflation-linked bonds, real estate and private equity.
