Temasek cuts compensation of senior management, investment team over failed investment in FTX

Temasek's investment team and senior management "took collective accountability and had their compensation reduced" after the firm's failed investment in cryptocurrency company FTX, chairman Lim Boon Heng said on Monday (May 29).

"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," Mr Lim said in his statement

"Nevertheless, we are disappointed with the outcome of our investment, and the negative impact on our reputation," he added.

An independent team had conducted an internal review of the investment and the findings were presented to Temasek's Board Risk & Sustainability Committee and to its 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," said Mr Lim.

Temasek's statement did not specify the size of the cut in compensation or how many staff were affected. In response to CNA's queries, Temasek said it had nothing to add to the statement by its chairman.

Temasek Holdings said in November that it would write down its US$275 million (S$372 million) investment in FTX.

Temasek’s announcement came after FTX collapsed.

In an earlier statement published on its website, Temasek said that it invested US$210 million in FTX International for a minority stake of about 1 per cent, and US$65 million for a minority stake of about 1.5 per cent in FTX US.

This was across two funding rounds from October 2021 to January this year.

The cost of Temasek's investment in FTX was 0.09 per cent of its net portfolio value of S$403 billion as of Mar 31, 2022, Temasek said at the time.

Mr Lim on Monday said that Temasek seeks to deliver sustainable returns over the long term.

"While there are inherent risks whenever we invest, we believe that we have to invest in new sectors and emerging technologies to understand how these areas may impact the business and financial models of our existing portfolio, and whether they would be drivers of future value in an ever-changing world."

"This is why we invest into early stage companies," he added.