The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is financing part of a $400 million loan facility to a mortgage brokerage firm. The loan, co-financed by the Ares Management Corp, will support CrossCountry Mortgage, a lender operating throughout the U.S., as the business pursues an organic and inorganic expansion strategy. CrossCountry Mortgage currently operates out of […]
In the early days of 2020, no one could have foreseen the social and economic havoc the coronavirus pandemic would wreak on the world. Nearly two years later, as markets and economies continue to recover, Canadian pension plan sponsors are looking to their money managers to help light the way to a brighter financial future. […]
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board is reporting a net return of 18.4 per cent in fiscal 2021. As of March 31, 2021, the PSP had $204.5 billion in net assets under management, up 20.4 per cent from $169.8 billion at the end of the previous fiscal year. The PSP also reported a 10-year annualized […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is one of two organizations investing a total US$940 million in Phoenix Tower International, a U.S.-based wireless communications infrastructure provider. The investment will fund the company’s expansion in Europe as well as further growth in new and existing markets. The other investor is AMP Capital, an Australia-based […]
Despite several bumps in the decade since the 2008/09 financial crisis, the swift and brutal crash in global equity prices when the coronavirus was declared a pandemic sent pension investors reaching for their playbooks to implement defensive strategies to mitigate the damage. “People have worked very hard at just acting on the set strategies that […]
Despite the low interest rate environment, it still makes sense for defined benefit pension plan sponsors to adopt a liability-driven investment strategy, said Serge Lapierre, global head of LDI at Manulife Investment Management, during a webinar sponsored by the firm on Monday. LDI investing is a risk management framework, he noted. “It’s not an asset […]
At the time of my last column in May, many pension plan sponsors were catching their breath after watching funding levels take a roller coaster ride. After a steep drop earlier in the year, funding levels were slowly recovering. However, market uncertainty remained and it wasn’t clear what was coming next. Thankfully the last few […]
China’s V-shaped economic recovery continued for a fourth consecutive month in June, led by strong domestic demand. And if the novel coronavirus remains under control, China can remain the world’s best consumer story. In China, consumer spending came back with force. Inflation-adjusted retail sales plummeted to a 23.7 per cent year-over-year decline in January and […]
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board posted a negative 0.6 per cent net return for the fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2020. Severe market declines in the lead up to the end of March took a heavy toll. However, the fund did outperform its reference portfolio, which saw a negative 2.2 per cent return. […]
During the global financial crisis, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. implemented a new governance report to bring together all elements of its investment portfolio and communicate risk to the board, says Max Giolitti, the fund’s former head of asset allocation and risk, and current chief risk officer at Verus Investments. The work began by educating […]