SMRT

[touzi]

How can you possibly spend $1bn as a manpower contractor? You have no need for capital expenditure, and salaries can be recovered from the government so at most you need only 3-6 months of salary as working capital. And since your payments from the government are guaranteed you could even borrow the salary money very cheaply. So the $1bn cash will be trapped. The only way to recover the cash is to privatize the company.

Based on current share price, the $1bn is not enough to pay for shares that Temasek does not own (~700 mil shares x $.150), let alone pay off debts.