July 29, 2008: Singapore Company Increases Stake in Merrill Lynch

Temasek, an arm of the government of Singapore, increases its stake in troubled US financial services company Merrill Lynch. It had previously paid $5bn for new shares in the company (see December 25, 2007), but is now entitled to a discount on this totaling $2.5bn. It spends the discount returned to it by Merrill Lynch and an additional $900m on more shares in the company. Temasek pays around $24 per share, half of what it paid in December 2007. [Agency France-Presse, 9/15/2008; Bloomberg, 9/15/2008]