Temasek's Deputy Chief Executive Officer Chia Song Hwee will oversee its investment activities in the wider Americas outside of North America, the investment firm said in a statement on Thursday.

Temasek, ranked among the top 10 state investors in the world with a portfolio value of S$403 billion ($302 billion) as of end-March 2022, has been expanding its exposure in Americas over the past few years.

The state investor said its head of Americas, John Vaske, will be leaving his role on March 31 to become the new chief executive officer of online agricultural platform Farmers Business Network (FBN).

Reuters reported in April that California-based FBN, a Temasek investee company, was gearing up for an IPO in the U.S., where it aimed to double its valuations to about $8 billion. The IPO was then scuttled as equity markets took a beating.

FBN's current CEO Amol Deshpande, is also the company's co-founder.

Temasek's exposure to Americas, as measured by underlying assets of its portfolio companies, grew to 21% in the year to March 2022 from 20% in 2021 and from 18% in 2020.

Temasek, which holds stakes in large listed Asian companies such as DBS Group and China Construction Bank, is mainly focused on Asia.

($1 = 1.3338 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Anshuman Daga and Shounak Dasgupta)