The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is launching a venture incubator called Koru, which aims to create, test and build scalable new digital businesses. “Koru is a clear demonstration of Ontario Teachers’ partnership model of investing,” said Ziad Hindo, chief investment officer at the Ontario Teachers’, in a press release. “It provides us with an entirely […]
Hub International Ltd. is acquiring Saskatoon-based Regency Advisory Corp., an employee benefits consulting firm. “We continue to build on our efforts to add talented organizations like Regency to boost our employee benefits and pension capabilities in Canada,” said Keith Jordan, president and chief executive officer of Hub International Manitoba Ltd., in a press release. “Regency has been involved in many […]
Canadian employers are expecting to increase base salaries by an average of 2.7 per cent in 2020, according to a new survey by Morneau Shepell Ltd. This is up from an average realized 2.6 per cent increase in 2019. The 2020 forecast includes increases in salary structure, length of service, cost of living and merit pay, but excludes salary freezes and […]
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has formed a joint venture with Boston Properties Inc. to develop Platform 16, a 1.1-million-square-foot Class A urban office campus in downtown San Jose, California. In November 2018, Boston Properties entered a 65-year ground lease for Platform 16. As part of the lease, it secured the right to purchase […]
The solvency positions of Canadian defined benefit pension plans declined slightly in the third quarter of 2019, according to new surveys from Aon and Mercer. Aon’s latest median solvency ratio survey reported a drop to 98.6 per cent from 99.3 per cent in the second quarter, while Mercer’s pension health index recorded 94 per cent […]
Romania will be reclassified from a frontier to a secondary emerging market and Tanzania will become a frontier market, effective September 2020, according to the equity side of FTSE Russell’s latest classification review. Argentina was removed from the watch list for potential reclassification as a secondary emerging market because it has imposed capital controls. And […]
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board is closing the largest private construction loan in Washington, D.C. history alongside Hoffman-Madison Waterfront. The first phase of the wharf, a waterfront neighbourhood that includes residential, hotel, office, retail real estate and public spaces like waterfront parks and piers, opened in 2017. This latest loan is for the second phase of its development. […]
Asset managers usually increase their profits by gathering more assets to manage, but doing so isn’t necessarily helping the institutional investors that work with them. “The dominant business or compensation model in the investment management industry basically boils down to this equation: assets under management times a fee percentage,” said Dan Brocklebank, head of U.K. […]
Great-West Life Assurance Co. is launching a mobile-friendly health and wellness platform with strategic features to encourage plan members to take charge of their own health. Health Connected includes digital health coaching, which allows users to complete a comprehensive, personalized health-risk assessment outlining risks across 15 health and wellness categories, as well as their standing in seven core skills mastered by […]
More than half (52 per cent) of institutional investors said they think a political or world event, such as Brexit, will impact portfolio performance over the next 12 months, according to a survey by Schroders. And that number is on the rise. The survey, which polled 650 institutional investors with a combined US$25.4 trillion in […]