The second year of the coronavirus pandemic offered defined benefit pension plan sponsors a reprieve from the chaos sown in financial markets during its first year. “A lot of pension plans ended up roughly where they started in 2020, but it was a very bumpy road,” says Gavin Benjamin, a retirement and financial solutions partner […]
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is expanding the number of countries in which it will apply its most stringent board gender diversity proxy voting rules. “We have enhanced our gender diversity voting practice by expanding the countries where our 30 per threshold for female representation applies to include South Africa and New Zealand,” said […]
In response to the ongoing war in Ukraine, more Canadian public sector institutional investors are announcing plans to exclude Russian assets from their portfolios. The Investment Management Corp. of Ontario and the Ontario Pension Board will divest their portfolios of existing Russian assets as soon as possible. Efforts to immediately divest are currently impossible as […]
The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System returned 15.7 per cent for 2021, a significant increase on its 2020 return. In its annual report, the OMERS said four key factors drove the outperformance relative to its benchmark, which was 6.6 per cent — its portfolio of public equities returned 20.7 per cent; its private equity businesses grew […]
A European long-term care home operator backed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is facing allegations of elder abuse and the misappropriation of public money, according to a new report. The report, published by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and two French trade unions, the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail and the […]
The Nova Scotia Pension Services Corp. is acquiring an industrial property for a Quebec electric vehicle design company. The 8.42 hectare facility, located in Chicago, will be redesigned in order to serve as a new production facility for Lion Electric Co. The Montreal-based electric vehicle designer and manufacturer, which produces electric vehicles for mass transit systems, is […]
The Alberta Investment Management Corp. is appointing Sandra Lau and James Barber as co-chief investment officers, effective March 1. The pair will succeed Dale MacMaster, who is retiring from the organization after 23 years. Lau will also be head of public investments, responsible for bringing together fixed income, mortgages and public equities, while Barber will be […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec saw overall returns of 13.5 per cent in 2021, its best performance since 2010. By the end of last year, the institutional investor’s managed assets reached $419.8 billion, up from $342 billion at the beginning of the year. The Caisse exceeded its own performance expectations by about […]
The California Public Employees’ Pension Retirement System is appointing Nicole Musicco as its new chief investment officer, effective March 28. She joins the CalPERS from RedBird Capital Partners, where she led the firm’s Canadian investment business. Previously, she managed the private markets investment program at the Investment Management Corp. of Ontario. She also spent 16 years […]
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board is publishing a green bond framework, which is aligned with existing standards in green bond and sustainable debt markets. Green bonds will provide a new tool in PSP Investments’ toolkit to support strong financial performance and responsible investment outcomes, noted a press release. It also said the framework will […]