Temasek eyes defence deals as Europe boosts military spending, executive says

By Mathieu Rosemain and Yantoultra Ngui

PARIS, July 24 (Reuters) - Singaporean state investor Temasek is looking to increase its investments in defence as the war in Ukraine prompts European governments to boost military spending, a senior executive said.

Defence will form part of Temasek’s broader push to invest more across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which today account for just 12% of its S$518 billion ($401 billion) portfolio.

"We have so far in the last two years invested something like €13 billion ($14.8 billion) (into EMEA)," Nagi Hamiyeh, Temasek's president of global investments and head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, told Reuters. The fund said in 2024 it aimed to invest up to about €17 billion in the region by 2029.

Defence is one sector that Temasek is now looking at more seriously, Hamiyeh said, citing rising government defence budgets.

"We have one company in Singapore, ST Engineering, which mainly serves the needs of the Singapore Armed Forces. But besides that, we never really looked at defence," he said in an interview.

"But now when you look at deterrence, when you look at sovereignty, we're starting to make an exception."

Temasek is one of the world's biggest state investors, with stakes in global companies including Alphabet and Ping An, as well as privately held firms Anthropic and OpenAI.

Temasek will mainly target dual-use technologies — products serving both civilian and military customers — rather than pure defence manufacturers, Hamiyeh said, while adhering to its environmental, social and governance guidelines.

"We have very, very clear guidelines when it comes to ESG in terms of responsible management, in terms of nothing to do with biological and chemical warfare," he said.

Defence sits alongside energy transition, infrastructure, luxury goods, industrial technology and life sciences as sectors where Hamiyeh said Europe had a "right to win." 

Temasek is also concentrating on larger European deals, with a minimum ticket size of €200 million and a preferred range of €500 million to €1 billion, to allow its Europe investment team of about 30 people to play an active role after investing, Hamiyeh said.

Around 73% of Temasek's underlying exposure is outside Singapore, with 26% in the Americas and 17% in China, according to its website. About half the portfolio is in unlisted assets.

In Europe, Temasek has invested in sectors ranging from fintech and healthcare to energy, including in Dutch payments company Adyen and French AI startup Mistral AI.

($1 = 0.8763 euros)

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain in Paris and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Edmund Klamann)