Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec president and CEO Charles Émond has acknowledged the failure of the investment in Celsius Network, a bankrupt cryptocurrency lending company. The institution considers that its investment in the company, estimated at approximately 200 million Canadian dollars, is already lost.
“It’s an investment that I consider to be written off, because we always have a bias of caution in our valuations,” explained Mr. Émond, during a press briefing with journalists, on the sidelines of the presentation of the results. of the Fund for the first half of the year. The Caisse is now evaluating its “legal options”, he underlined.
“No one at the Caisse, myself included, is happy with the outcome of this case,” regrets Mr. Émond. “That said, we must not lose sight of the fact that this is an exception in our venture capital portfolio. »
The president and CEO of the Caisse acknowledged that the institution arrived “too soon in a sector in transition, with a company that had to manage extremely rapid growth, even a growth crisis”.
Last October, the Caisse had invested 150 million US dollars in Celsius Network – approximately 200 million Canadian dollars. However, in July, the company filed for bankruptcy, nearly a month after freezing the assets of its 2 million members.
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