Singapore’s state-owned investor, Temasek Holdings Pte, has decided to write down its entire $275 million investment in FTX, saying its belief in Sam Bankman-Fried was likely “misplaced.”
(Bloomberg) — Singapore’s state-owned investor, Temasek Holdings Pte, has decided to write down its entire $275 million investment in FTX, saying its belief in Sam Bankman-Fried was likely “misplaced.”
Temasek invested $210 million in FTX International and $65 million in FTX US across two funding rounds from October 2021 to January this year, the company said in a statement. That made up a tiny fraction of its net portfolio value of S$403 billion ($294 billion) as of March. The company currently has no direct exposure in cryptocurrencies, it said.
The meltdown of FTX and the evaporation of capital from its institutional backers is shaking confidence throughout the crypto world. The firm had been considered by some investors as one of the safer bets in the sector thanks to its size and role as an exchange, rather than being just an active manager of digital currency.
“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 said.
Temasek’s statement on the writedown confirms an earlier Bloomberg report. Another FTX backer, Sequoia Capital, wrote down the full value of its $214 million bet on the exchange, while a person with knowledge of the situation said SoftBank Group Corp. is expecting a loss of around $100 million on its investment.
Temasek said it backed FTX to invest in a leading digital asset exchange, giving it “market neutral exposure to crypto markets with a fee income model and no trading or balance sheet risk.”
Temasek said it conducted an “extensive due diligence process” on FTX from February to October 2021. It reviewed FTX’s audited financial statement, which showed it to be profitable. Due diligence efforts also focused on regulatory risk, particularly licensing and compliance. It sought advice from external legal and cybersecurity specialists in key jurisdictions.
“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,” Temasek said.
Temasek invests in early-stage companies and accepts the binary risks associated with such investments, it said. The firm’s early-stage investments make up about 6% of its portfolio and have generated good returns, with internal rates of return in the mid-teens, it added.
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