Singaporean state-owned investor Temasek Holdings has reported its worst returns since 2016 and warned it has slowed investment amid recession risks, higher interest rates and geopolitical tensions.
Temasek, one of the biggest and most active investors globally, said the net value of its portfolio had shrunk to S$382bn (US$285bn) in the financial year to March, as public and private equity capital markets fell and the technology sector was hit particularly hard. That compared with it being worth a record $403bn in 2022. A S$7bn loss was driven by mark-to-market accounting.
The Asian investor, which has two-thirds of its portfolio in the region and has backed some of the world’s biggest start-ups from Jack Ma’s Ant Group in China to San Francisco and Dublin-based payments processing group Stripe, reported a 5.07 per cent drop in total shareholder returns. This compared with a 5.8 per cent increase the previous year and was far below the 24.5 per cent increase in 2021. The group slowed its investment pace for the period, calling it “the most challenging year for markets over the last decade”.