Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings has set up a new investment unit that will focus on liquefied natural gas (LNG), a local newspaper reported on Saturday.

The new unit, named Pavilion Energy, will be a wholly-owned unit with an initial capital of 1 billion Singapore dollars (800 million US dollars), local Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao reported.

The company plans to be operational by September. It will operated in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia and will make joint investments with its parent.

The company will be led by Seah Moon Ming, a senior managing director for special projects, who joined Temasek in February from local company ST Enigneering.

Temasek is establishing the new unit as part of efforts to expand its energy-related holdings. The company has said it hopes to capitalize on opportunities arising from the emerging economies.

Pavilion Energy said in a statement on Friday that it will invest globally across LNG-related businesses, including LNG trading and exploration as well as storage, processing and shipping.

"As economies continue to transform and urbanize, the demand for clean energy, especially liquefied natural gas, is expected to increase," it said.

Temasek, which had a portfolio of 198 billion Singapore dollars (159.7 billion US dollars) portfolio as of March 2012, has been increasing its investment in energy sector recently by doubling the size of its energy holdings to about 6 percent.