Singapore's state-owned investor Temasek Holdings has made the rare decision to delay its annual report until September, blaming COVID-19 for hampering the global flow of financial information.
Temasek Holdings CEO Ching Ho announced the delay in a Facebook post Thursday. The company, which managed S$313 billion ($230.8 billion) as of March 2019, was set to release the report this month.
The delay comes at a difficult time for Temasek, which saw its public equity holdings take a beating in the first quarter. It's also made several major commitments to support portfolio companies such as Singapore Airlines Ltd.
In her post, Ms. Ho blamed COVID-19 for forcing companies around the world to delay their financial results, noting that many of Temasek's portfolio companies have multinational operations.
"Although we didn't anticipate a COVID pandemic, the economic indicators had become worrisome since last year," she wrote, adding the company had made plans to build up its balance sheet. "Clearly COVID is now a bigger problem than we had expected."
Ms. Ho is the wife of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is seeking a new term for his ruling party in national elections set for July 10.
