SINGAPORE, Jan 7 — Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore’s state-owned investment firm, is looking at ways to offer bonds to retail investors in the city state.

Issuing fixed-income products will provide an “alternative investment opportunity” for investors seeking stable returns with lower risks, Stephen Forshaw, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement on its website.

Temasek’s bonds have received the top rating from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and Moody’s Investors Service since 2004, it said in its annual report in July. The bonds under its US$10 billion (RM32.9 billion) medium-term note programme are typically offered to institutional investors.

Temasek’s assets rose to a record S$215 billion in the year ended March as surging stock markets drove an almost sixfold increase in returns, it said in the annual report. The value of Temasek’s holdings increased by 8.6 per cent in the fiscal year from S$198 billion, while total shareholder return, which includes dividends, widened to 8.9 per cent from 1.5 per cent in the previous year.

The firm’s total shareholder return averaged 16 per cent since its inception in 1974. The average return was 4.9 per cent over a three-year period, and 13 per cent over 10 years, it said in the annual report.

Temasek is mostly invested in stocks, according to the statement today. The market value of its holdings may rise or fall by more than 30 per cent during volatile periods such as the global financial crisis, Forshaw said in the statement.

“We are mindful that past opportunities and conditions are not likely to repeat in the coming decades,” Forshaw said. “Furthermore, global structural risks remain.” — Bloomberg