Temasek buys ICBC shares from Goldman Sachs

Temasek Holdings Ltd, an Asian investment firm headquartered in Singapore, increased its stake in Hong Kong-listed Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) from 6.71 to 7.04 percent.

This is the third time in a year that it has increased its stake and coincides with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. exiting its seven-year investment.

Temasek bought 280 million shares in the world’s largest bank by market value at an average price of $0.71 a share, or a total of $198 million, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange statement on Tuesday.

Goldman Sachs raised $1.1 billion by selling $1.58 billion in ICBC on the same day, according to a Reuters report.

Temasek has long been keen on Chinese State-owned banks and bought $21 billion of holdings in ICBC, China Construction Bank Corp and Bank of China Ltd over the past two years. Chinese bank stocks now account for 20 percent of Temasek’s investment portfolio.

Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, cashed over $9.7 billion in the past few years by selling large ICBC shares. It first bought 4.9 percent of ICBC’s shares for $2.58 billion in 2006 shortly before the bank went public in Hong Kong.