The Universities Academic Pension Plan is withdrawing control of its $2.7-billlion public equities portfolio from the Alberta Investment Management Corp. The withdrawal comes following ongoing discussions at the UAPP about the AIMCo’s public equities strategy and the investment manager’s volatility trading program that was wound down in 2020, says Geoffrey Hale, chair of the UAPP’s […]
A defined benefit pension plan leader rarely gets to work with a “blank canvas,” but Chuck Bruce has taken that unique opportunity and drawn a new way forward for more than 56,000 DB plan members in Newfoundland and Labrador. In late 2014, the province and its five largest unions established Provident10 to administer and oversee […]
The Alberta Investment Management Corp. is reporting a total fund return of 2.5 per cent net of all fees for 2020, approximately 5.4 per cent below that of its benchmark. The total represents approximately $3 billion in net investment income, with assets under management reaching $118.6 billion, according to a press release, which noted the […]
The funding status and confidence of Canadian defined benefit pension plans declined in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic and a low interest-rate environment, according to a new survey from RBC Investor & Treasury Services. It found among 122 respondents, 50 per cent reported their plans were fully funded on a going-concern basis, down significantly from […]
Canada’s largest pension plans are reporting mixed financial results from a year marked by the coronavirus pandemic. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec reported a 7.7 per cent return on its depositors’ funds in 2020, representing $24.8 billion in investment results. As at Dec. 31, 2020, the Caisse’s net assets totalled $365.5 billion, up […]
Canada’s pension funds are shifting asset management functions in-house while becoming more strategic about oversight of external managers, according to a new survey from CIBC Mellon. It found pension funds are increasing the portion of assets and investment activities managed in-house to 28 per cent from 22 per cent, with the majority of pension funds […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is investing an additional US$1 billion in Invenergy Renewables, a developer and operator of wind and solar projects across North America. The commitment, in the form of new investment facilities, will support Invenergy’s expanded development activities and continued growth, according to a press release. The Caisse began […]
The year 2020 tested the mettle of entrepreneurs and small business owners like none other in recent history. And private equity firms operating in the small- and medium-sized business space were called upon like never before to help manage through the pandemic. For many business owners, 2020 has been about survival and making it through […]
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 […]
The prospect of a Joe Biden presidency with a Republican-held senate is an ideal outcome for markets, said Charles Myers, founder and chairman of Signum Global Advisors, during the Canadian Investment Review’s Investment Innovation Conference in November. Speaking the morning after the election, Myers said Republicans’ expected continued control of the senate would have “very […]