Singapore Government’s Temasek Writes Down $275M Investment in Collapsed Crypto Exchange FTX

Singapore government’s Temasek has written down the full value of its $275 million investment in the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. “Our belief in the actions, judgment, and leadership of Sam Bankman-Fried … would appear to have been misplaced,” Temasek admitted.

The Singapore government’s Temasek Holdings issued a statement regarding its investments in FTX Thursday after the cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy.

Temasek is a global investment company headquartered in Singapore with a portfolio valued at $403 billion Singapore dollars (US$294 billion). Temasek was established to own and manage the assets previously held by the Singapore government; the government is the sole equity shareholder of Temasek.

The investment firm explained:

We invested US$210 million for a minority stake of ~1% in FTX International, and invested US$65 million for a minority stake of ~1.5% in FTX US, across 2 funding rounds from October 2021 to January 2022. The cost of our investment in FTX was 0.09% of our net portfolio value of S$403 billion as of 31 March 2022.

“There have been misperceptions that our investment in FTX is an investment into cryptocurrencies. To clarify, we currently have no direct exposure in cryptocurrencies,” the firm emphasized.

Temasek proceeded to explain that “Similar to all investments, we conducted an extensive due diligence process on FTX, which took approximately 8 months from February to October 2021.”

The company added: “Reports have since surfaced that customer assets were mishandled and misused in FTX. If these statements are true, then this amounts to serious misconduct or fraud at FTX. All of this is currently being investigated by the regulators.” Temasek continued:

It is apparent from this investment that perhaps our belief in the actions, judgment and leadership of Sam Bankman-Fried, formed from our interactions with him and views expressed in our discussions with others, would appear to have been misplaced .

Temasek added:

In view of FTX’s financial position, we have decided to write down our full investment in FTX, irrespective of the outcome of FTX’s bankruptcy protection filing.

“There are inherent risks whenever we invest, divest, or hold our assets, and wherever we operate. While this write down of our investment in FTX will not have significant impact on our overall performance, we treat any investment losses seriously and there will be learnings for us from this,” the firm concluded.

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