Temasek gets nod to raise Merrill stake: report

(Reuters) - Singapore's Temasek Holdings TEM.UL has received U.S. antitrust approval to raise its stake in Merrill Lynch MER.N to as much as 14 percent, Bloomberg reported, without citing sources.

The sovereign wealth fund, Merrill's largest shareholder, has a 9.4 percent stake in the U.S. investment bank.

Temasek has invested about $5 billion in Merrill since Dec 24 after Chief Executive John Thain, 53, replaced Stan O'Neal, who was ousted following the firm's biggest quarterly loss in its 93-year history.

Merrill's writedowns are about 10 percent of the total credit losses incurred by banks in the subprime meltdown, the news agency said.

A Merrill spokesman in Asia declined to comment.

Temasek, wholly owned by Singapore's finance ministry, has been increasing investments in global financial services companies to take advantage of a stock market slump that erased about $10 trillion in market value in the past year.

Temasek is also the biggest shareholder of London-based Standard Chartered Plc (STAN.L) and Singapore's DBS Group Holdings Ltd (DBSM.SI).

(Reporting by Sweta Singh in Bangalore; editing by Sue Thomas)