The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s 2019 climate change report contains its first-ever, independently assured portfolio carbon footprint. Even as the plan’s assets grew in 2019, it’s overall carbon footprint fell by about 15 per cent, driven in large part by the sale of a particularly high-emitting private asset, according to the report, which was assured […]
A new report by a U.K.-based think tank is suggesting public policy should shift to allow pension plan investments to help bolster the country’s infrastructure needs. The report, by the Social Market Foundation, urged the government to foster the growth of fewer, but larger, pensions funds, with the scale to make major infrastructure investments. “Learning from Australia […]
Before physical distancing, pension plan sponsors typically held in-person meetings and site visits when allocating to new investment managers. “I like to look people in the eye when they’re telling me what they’re going to do,” says Blair Richards, chief executive officer of the Halifax Port ILA/HEA Pension Plan. “It’s very old school and it’s […]
Along with the rest of the globe, Canada isn’t likely to see the V-shaped recovery that institutional investors were hoping for as it stares down the recessionary road ahead. “Canadian activity was also on the softening path even at the end of last year,” says Irene Lauro, an economist at Schroders. “And this is because […]
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is joining a consortium of other institutional investors to invest in certain gas pipeline assets of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. The assets are valued at $20.7 billion and the other investors include Global Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, NH Investment & Securities Co Ltd. and Snam, an […]
Canadian institutional investors are operating in a landscape that has changed dramatically since the initial market and policy reactions to the coronavirus pandemic. “A lot has changed over the last five to six months,” said Michael Sager, vice-president and client portfolio manager for multi-asset and currency management at CIBC Asset Management Inc., during a webinar hosted […]
Investors were already feeling the pressures of historically low interest rates. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. The Bank of Canada cut its overnight interest rate at the end of March to an all-time low of 0.25 per cent and announced a plan to spend $5 billion per week on Government of Canada bonds. This came […]
While technological change is accelerating at a rapid rate, the financial system isn’t keeping pace, says Campbell Harvey, professor of finance at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Traditional systems make it difficult for those trying to raise capital or invest. Yet new technology is coming to market that can resolve many barriers and dramatically […]
Vestcor Investment Management Corp. returned 11.76 per cent in 2019, with total assets under management rising to $18.5 billion, according to its 2019 annual report. The organization, which manages the investment and administration for several of New Brunswick’s public sector pension plans, said the long-term annualized gross pension fund return since it began its business […]
The Investment Management Corp. of Ontario has sold its interest in Spanish electricity provider Viesgo to funds managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets. Prior the sale, the IMCO and MIRA collectively owned 60 per cent of Viesgo, while Wren House Infrastructure Management Ltd. owned the remaining 40 per cent. The initial investment in Viesgo was part of legacy client strategies […]