Temasek hires ST Engineering executive as senior MD

SINGAPORE Feb 20 (Reuters) - Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd has hired the deputy chief executive of Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd as a senior managing director to look at investment opportunities in the liquefied natural gas sector.

Seah Moon Ming, an electronics engineer by training who oversaw four business units at ST Engineering, will be part of a new "enterprise development group" formed under Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Sandrasegara, who is also head of Singapore and co-head of portfolio management at Temasek, is building a team that will look at new areas of growth outside of traditional investments in companies that come under the purview of its investment team, they said. The enterprise unit was formed earlier this month.

"We can confirm that Seah Moon Ming will join Temasek as senior managing director, special projects, on March 1, 2013," Temasek said in a statement to Reuters.

"Moon Ming will be leading an initiative to establish a new business entity focusing on opportunities in the LNG sector which is expected to grow in Asia."

Temasek, which manages about S$198 billion ($160 billion), has been boosting investments in the energy sector, which accounted for 6 percent of its portfolio in its last financial year that ended in March, up from 3 percent a year earlier.

Financial services still account for 31 percent of Temasek's portfolio, including sizeable stakes in DBS Group Holdings and Standard Chartered.

The latest move to look for opportunities in the LNG sector comes a few months after China Investment Corp and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp pumped around $500 million each into U.S.-based Cheniere Energy Partners LP .

Temasek has seen a number of new hires in the past two years, mainly investment bankers such as former UBS Chief Financial Officer John Cryan. ($1 = 1.2382 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by John O'Callaghan)