Ontario Lecturers’ Pension Plan mentioned it’s going to write down its stake in FTX to zero, taking a US$95 million loss barely a yr after making its first funding in Sam Bankman-Fried’s now-bankrupt cryptocurrency change.
Lecturers mentioned the writedown could have solely a “restricted affect” as a result of it’s lower than 0.05 per cent of the $242.5 billion (US$182 billion) pension fund. “Nonetheless, we’re upset with the result of this funding, take all losses critically and can use this expertise to additional strengthen our method,” the fund mentioned in a assertion Thursday.
The Toronto-based pension supervisor put US$75 million into FTX’s worldwide and U.S. divisions in October 2021 by means of its enterprise capital arm, and invested US$20 million extra in FTX.US in January.
Ontario Lecturers mentioned it labored carefully with advisers and FTX to know industrial, regulatory, tax, monetary and technical elements of the enterprise. The fund had a 0.4 per cent stake in FTX Worldwide and 0.5 per cent of FTX.US when Bankman-Fried’s empire collapsed final week and filed for Chapter 11.
“Current experiences recommend potential fraud carried out at FTX which is deeply regarding for all events,” Lecturers mentioned. “We totally assist the efforts of regulators and others to evaluate the dangers and causes of failure for this enterprise.”
It’s the second time in three months {that a} main Canadian pension supervisor has been pressured to put in writing off a crypto funding it solely not too long ago made. In August, the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec marked its $150 million stake in Celsius Community LLC to zero after the cryptocurrency lender failed.
