Wife Of Singapore PM: We Can Afford Loss At FTX

Ho Ching, the wife of Singaporean Lee Hsien Loong, has broken her silence over the write-down of the US$275 investment by Temasek Holdings into bankrupted cryptocurrency FTX in a Facebook post, The Online Citizen reported.

Photo Insert: Ho was the former chief executive officer of the Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek for more than 18 years.

Ho was the former chief executive officer of the Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek for more than 18 years, including the time when Temasek drowned in red ink over bad investments in Merrill Lynch in 2007-2008.

Despite being known to be ethical, Singaporeans did not question Ho’s leadership of Temasek despite her being the daughter-in-law of the late Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and wife to Yew’s son and current Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Ho left the agency in October 2021 after Temasek invested in FTX.

In reaction to the US$275 million Temasek fund invested in FTX that evaporated, Ho said: “A loss is a loss, and always painful… A loss in what may turn out to be a badly managed company without adult supervision is egg on our face.”

She added: “I am glad that Temasek has made a clear decision to write down this investment to zero. This helps clear the head on what to do as a next step, without being blinkered by wishful thinking.”

Moreover, she argued that “with a long-term stance, and all the pros and cons that come with that stance, Temasek is not fazed by the twiddles and sentiments of the market.”

She acknowledged that her statement does not mitigate the loss or reduce the pain by saying BlackRock or Softbank or Sequoia also invested in FTX. Ho argued that some of Temasek’s best investments were made by being contrarian, although she did not name examples of such investments.

However, she maintained that “Temasek can afford to be contrarian because it has its own balance sheet and can think long term.” In its statement on Nov. 17, Temasek noted that the sum of US$275 million that was written off was 0.09% of its net portfolio value of S$403 billion as of March 31, 2022.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic