The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) plans to retain holdings in big western financial institutions such as UBS and Citigroup for up to 30 years and is looking for further investment opportunities in the sector, the chairman of the city state's sovereign wealth fund said yesterday. "We are buying into something that we intend to keep for the next two or three decades and grow with them," said Lee Kuan Yew, GIC chairman and independent Singapore's first leader. "If there are other banks of the quality of the two that we bought into, with the promise and the capabilities and inherent capabilities to recover, we have got the liquidity to meet it, to make such an investment," he told Bloomberg TV. GIC, which has estimated assets of $300bn, has invested a total of $18bn in UBS and Citi since late last year when the two banks sought financing in the wake of writedowns on subprime mortgages. Analysts have questioned whether GIC was premature in the timing of the investments since UBS shares have fallen about 35 per cent and Citi shares by about 8 per cent since the deals were announced. Mr Lee defended the deals by saying that both banks had good franchises and brand names, with GIC having a performance benchmark of five to 10 years. "Will there be another Swiss bank like UBS for wealth management? I doubt it, we doubt it, that is why we invested in it," he said. Singapore is seeking to become a leading global centre for wealth management and private banking. The large investments in the banks were unusual for GIC, which has normally limited its investments to small stakes. GIC also sought to protect its investments in the two banks by structuring the deals to prevent losses from share price falls. It invested in convertible preferred securities issued by Citi that give it a 7 per cent annual return and it can convert them into shares at any time. In the case of UBS, GIC invested in convertible notes with a 9 per cent annual return, but the notes must be converted into shares within two years. GIC is now considering whether to participate in a new SFr15bn ($14.4bn) issue by UBS, but as yet has made no decision.