The Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System is selling LifeLabs Inc. in a deal worth roughly $1.35 billion to U.S.-based Quest Diagnostics. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year, said a press release. The Canadian laboratory firm will retain its brand, headquarters and management after the deal closes. “OMERS is proud […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is acquiring an 80 per cent stake in a Japanese solar power generation plant alongside its portfolio company Shizen Energy Inc. The solar power plant generates 31 megawatts, or enough energy to power 7,850 homes, according to a press release. The Caisse first invested $186 million in the energy […]
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is committing $1.3 billion to a logistics fund involved in projects in major urban centres in Japan. The GLP Development Partners IV fund, managed by the Singapore-based GLP, will focus on developing modern logistics facilities in large-scale projects around Tokyo and Osaka. So far, the fund has raised $3.6 […]
While massive monetary policy response didn’t drive inflation following the 2008/09 financial crisis, institutional investors are mulling over whether things may be different this time. The global economy has rarely seen such a swift willingness to engage with economic calamity on both monetary and fiscal levels, says Erik Weisman, chief economist and fixed income portfolio […]
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is taking part in the launch of the GLP Japan income fund, a private Japanese open-ended logistics fund. The deal is the latest in the pension fund’s partnership with Global Logistics Properties Ltd., which kicked off in 2011 when the two parties formed a 50-50 joint venture. While the venture has been expanded multiple […]
With central banks targeting short-term interest rates near zero and engaging in quantitative easing, will they resort to other monetary policy tools like yield curve control to further stimulate the economy? Yield curve control is when a central bank targets a longer-term interest rate and then pledges to buy the required amount of bonds to […]
The fast-moving coronavirus isn’t just confounding health officials. It’s also bedevilling policymakers and central bankers who are struggling to assess the economic damage from an outbreak that’s reached 37 countries and territories, infected 80,000 people and killed 2,700 worldwide. They don’t know where or how fast the virus will spread. They can’t draw on clear […]
Central banks’ actions have gone too far and they’re running out of tools in their toolbox, according to Erik Weisman, chief economist at MFS Investment Management. When interest rates are pushed to zero or into negative territory, people are deciding to save more instead of spending money on which they’re not earning interest, he says. […]
The virus outbreak in China has put South Korea’s economy into an “emergency situation,” its president says. Japan is on the brink of recession and big manufacturers are forecasting a whole world of woe. As many Chinese finally go back to work after their longest Lunar New Year holiday ever, the economic fallout from the […]
Low interest rates and reduced trade tensions will likely buoy the global economy over the next two years and help nurture steady if modest growth. That’s the view of the International Monetary Fund, which foresees world economic growth accelerating from 2.9 per cent last year to 3.3 per cent in 2020 and 3.4 per cent […]