Moody’s senior analyst Ken Chan put Chartered Semiconductor’s (CHRT) speculative-grade Ba2 rating under review for a possible downgrade after Abu Dhabi’s nationalized investment firm, ATIC, proposed to buy the Singapore-based company for $1.8 billion.

The acquisition would transfer the majority holding from Singapore investment agency, Temasek (Moody’s rating Aaa) to ATIC (Abu Dhabi’s sovereign rating Aa2).

Analysts differed on how the acquisition would affect Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which had earlier united with ATIC to form Globalfoundries. Although Chartered and Globalfoundries will continue to operate as separate entities, increased scale of operations could result in cost synergies. Since AMD includes Globalfoundries in its consolidated results, the deal could shorten its road to profitability.

The deal would also open up Globalfoundries to several big customers, such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Broadcom Corp. (BRCM), Marvell Technology Group (MRVL) and Texas Instruments (TXN). Its end market

...

SINGAPORE, July 29 - Singapore state investor Temasek said on Wednesday its portfolio had fallen by S$40 billion as of end-March 2009 from a year ago.

“In our Temasek Review last year, we reported an annual value-at-risk of almost S$40 billion last March. This meant a 16 percent probability for our portfolio value to drop more than S$40 billion by March this year. Indeed, it has turned out to be so, and more,” CEO Ho Ching said in a speech.

Temasek had S$185 billion in assets as of end-March 2008, which fell to S$127 billion as of November 2008. Ho did not give the exact portfolio level.

This was the first public comment by Ho, also the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, after Temasek said last week that Charles “Chip” Goodyear will not become CEO due to differences over strategy.[ID:SIN435934]

Ho said Temasek would continue to look at internal and external candidates

...

Chinese Firm Builds Free Trade Zone in Uganda Paradise International Investment Ltd is investing USD1.5 bn to build infrastructure in the Ssesamirembe Eco-City located in the Lake Victoria Free Trade Zone. Paradise signed an agreement with Uganda's Kagera Eco-Cities, which is authorised to supervise the investment and work, the Ugandan website...