A high-inflation environment is pushing Canadian pension plan sponsors toward alternative sources of fixed income, according to a white paper released by Coalition Greenwich. The white paper, which was commissioned by Toronto-based AGF Investments, is based on telephone interviews with 31 Canadian corporate and public sector pension plan sponsors and endowment fund managers. It found […]
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 […]
Nearly two years after the declaration of the global coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent impact on the worldwide economy, institutional investors are looking to the future with cautious optimism. Amid a recovering economy and rising inflation, pension plan sponsors are taking a long-term investment view and staying the course in the year ahead, while incorporating […]
With many defined benefit pension plan solvency ratios at all-time highs, plan sponsors have an excellent opportunity to rethink their approach to investing, according to Shivin Kwatra, head of liability-driven investing portfolio management at Insight Investments. “It is important to highlight two approaches to investing: one [is] traditional — a mean variance framework of maximizing […]
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is recapitalizing an expanding packaging business. The institutional investor has signed an agreement with the U.S.-based Berlin Packaging, a supplier of glass, plastic and metal containers with annual revenues of about US$2.5 billion. Private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, which has been an investor in the packaging supplier […]
With bond returns tied to interest rates, it’s no surprise Canadian pension funds are increasingly seeking other ways to boost fixed income yields. Canadian interest rates have been trending downward for the last 30 years, from a high of 10.3 per cent in 1990 to around 1.75 per cent in early 2020, according to the […]
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 […]
A majority (79 per cent) of institutional investors see a global economic slowdown as the top threat to their portfolios in the next 12 months, according to a new survey by Schroders. Prompted by coronavirus-related concerns, it’s a big jump from the 49 per cent of respondents that said the same in 2019. Those concerns are also […]
Close to half of global institutional investors are planning to increase their allocations to alternatives amid coronavirus-related volatility, according to a new survey by CoreData Research Ltd. The survey, which polled more than 450 investors, found 26 per cent of respondents’ portfolios are made up of alternative assets, up slightly from 24 per cent in 2019. […]