The Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System is selling its interest in a group operating dermatology clinics in the U.S.

The institutional investor will sell its minority stake in Forefront Dermatology, a single specialty group providing dermatological services out of 200 clinics located throughout the continental U.S., to the Partners Group.

As part of the transaction, the OMERS and Forefront’s physicians and executive team will reinvest in the company as minority owners. The OMERS first invested in Forefront in 2016. Since then, the group has more than doubled the number of clinics it operates.

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In a press release, Michael Graham, global head of private equity at the OMERS, praised the company for its resilience during the coronavirus pandemic. “In addition, through this transaction, we will generate an excellent outcome for more than 525,000 members of the OMERS pension plan.”

In other news, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is providing US$1.1 billion in growth funding for a financial services company that specializes in providing service investment platforms to major financial institutions.

The organization’s funding in FNZ, a New Zealand-based investment platform with US$1.5 trillion in assets under management, will be used to scale its platform. FNZ provides an infrastructure and investment operations platform that allows institutional customers to create individually tailored products and services.

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The growth funding was delivered alongside a contribution from asset management firm Motive Capital Corp., which contributed US$300 million. Through the transaction, the CPPIB and Motive will join a group of six other institutional shareholders in FNZ, which is estimated to be worth about US$20 billion.

In a press release, Hafiz Lalani, managing director and head of European direct private equity at the CPPIB, said the investment fund delivered attractive risk-adjusted returns. “FNZ offers a unique, end-to-end value proposition which enables the world’s leading wealth managers to provide personalized, transparent and accessible solutions to enhance consumers’ long-term savings while reducing cost and complexity.”

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