The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has terminated an agreement to sell its 10 per cent stake in Hudson’s Bay Co. to a private entity controlled by the retailer’s executive chairman, Richard Baker. The announcement, by one of Baker’s private companies, came after HBC’s publicly traded shares rose above what Teachers’ was to get under the […]
Sun Life Financial Inc. is consolidating several elements of its asset management business. The firm’s fixed income institutional asset management businesses — Prime Advisors Inc., Ryan Labs Asset Management Inc. and Sun Life Institutional Investments Inc. — will be combined with its general account to form SLC Management, a new autonomous asset management business. SLC […]
A real estate partnership co-owned by the Public Sector Pension Investment Board has broken ground on a $1.1-billion private student residence in London, England. The Cherry Park partnership, formed in March by the PSP, European real estate company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Vancouver-based QuadReal Property Group, a subsidiary of the British Columbia Investment Management Corp., is expected to […]
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board reported a net return of 7.1 per cent at the end of its last fiscal year, ending March 31, 2019. The fund increased its overall assets under management by 9.7 per cent, jumping from $153.1 billion to $168 billion, including the $3.7 billion the fund received in net contributions. […]
The market value of Canadian trusteed pension fund assets decreased by 1.3 per cent in Q4 2018 compared to the previous quarter, landing at $1.87 trillion. Yet, on a year-over-year basis, the market value of assets rose by 1.6 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. The strongest area of growth was mortgage […]
Since standard banks began to shy away from their traditional financing role after the 2008 financial crisis, institutional investors have helped maintain markets by becoming increasingly important providers of long-term capital. Historically low interest rates also pushed these sovereign wealth and pension funds away from the traditional fixed income bedrock of their portfolios into a bevy […]
Canadian investors are keen to increase their allocations to alternatives over the next 12 months, according to a new survey by CIBC Mellon. Specifically, 58 per cent of Canadian institutional investors surveyed said they expect to increase allocations to this asset class and none said they expect to reduce allocations. This contrasts global findings in […]
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is selling its stake in BluEarth Renewables Inc. to DIF Infrastructure V, a European independent infrastructure fund. The Ontario Teachers’ was a founding shareholder in BluEarth, an independent renewable power producer that builds, owns and operates solar, hydro and wind facilities in North America. Following the sale, DIF V will own […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, through its investment platform with port and terminal operator DP World, is taking on a 45 per cent interest in DP World Chile, which operates terminals in Puerto Central and Puerto Lirquen. The terminals, which serve Chile’s main consumption and industrial centres, join a portfolio of ports […]
While defined benefit plans are traditionally known for their paternalism, defined contribution pensions represent the next generation. Learning from their parents’ years of investment experience, DC plans are catching up, but hurdles still exist in the quest to invest like DB plans. The liquidity question As more DC plan sponsors consider adding illiquid alternatives to […]