Temasek Chairman Comments on FTX
Posted on 05/31/2023
Temasek’s Chairman Lim Boon Heng is a former politician in the country. He was a member of Parliament between 1980 and 2011, and served in the Cabinet between 2001 and 2011. He also served as Chairman of the People’s Action Party between 2004 and 2011. Temasek suffered a writedown of US$ 275 billion due to the FTX collapse.
In a letter on Temasek’s website, he said: “With FTX, as alleged by prosecutors and as admitted by key executives at FTX and its affiliates, there was fraudulent conduct intentionally hidden from investors, including Temasek. Nevertheless, we are disappointed with the outcome of our investment, and the negative impact on our reputation.”
He also expressed the necessity of investing in “new sectors” and “early stage companies.” Further, “An independent team has conducted an internal review of the investment and the findings were directly presented to the Board Risk & Sustainability Committee and to our Board. Although there was no misconduct by the investment team in reaching their investment recommendation, the investment team and senior management, who are ultimately responsible for investment decisions made, took collective accountability and had their compensation reduced.” The letter concluded with this statement.
Singapore is known for its strong economy. It has a population of 5.5 million. The GDP is US$ 635 billion. It ranks highly for property rights and a low tax burden. Temasek has now decided to cap its investment in early stage companies at 6% of its US$ 403 billion under management.
