OMERS Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, has closed a US$750 million venture capital fund — its largest fund to date. The transatlantic fund is investing in companies related to financial systems, insurance, property, logistics, health and workplace technology in Canada, the U.S. and U.K., as well as Europe. […]
Lori Landry, chief marketing officer at Sun Life Global Investments, has retired, effective April 17. After nearly 20 years at Rogers Communications Inc. as a journalist, editor and publisher — including 17 years at Benefits Canada — Landry joined Sun Life Financial in 2003 as assistant vice-president of marketing and plan member education for group […]
Global institutional investors say they intend to gently reduce their average new capital commitments to real estate in 2020. According to a new report by Institutional Real Estate Inc. and Kingsley Associates, survey respondents said they’re reducing their new spend by an average of 11 per cent this year. Notably, the survey was conducted between Nov. 12, […]
While employers of frontline workers have beefed up their policies to physically protect workers from the spread of the coronavirus, many aren’t providing additional supports or mental-health resources, according to a new survey by ADP Canada Co. The survey, which polled more than 750 working Canadians, found that across all industries, 45 per cent of employers are offering extra mental-health […]
With the increase in job losses, illnesses, uncertainty and self-isolation, how is the coronavirus survey affecting Canadians’ emotional and psychological well-being? Half of Canadians reported a worsening of their mental health with 10 per cent saying it has worsened a lot, according to a new survey by the Angus Reid Institute. When asked to describe […]
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. is aligning itself with other global pension investors by signing a new joint letter calling for long-term sustainability to become a more prevalent concern for corporations and asset managers. The letter was co-signed in early March by three institutional investors — Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, the California State Teachers’ Retirement Scheme and […]
The University of Toronto Asset Management Corp. has earned a 13 per cent return on its pension portfolio for 2019, and a 12.9 per cent return on its endowment portfolio, net of all fees and expenses. While the 2019 results were strong, and beat the university’s target return of 6.2 per cent, they lagged the […]
The Nova Scotia Teachers’ Pension Plan is bracing for the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on its assets as it reported a 78.2 per cent funded status on a going-concern basis — up from 75.3 per cent at the end of 2018 — and a $1.497-million deficit in its 2019 annual results. “While the plan remains […]
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, alongside Dutch pension fund ASG and asset manager ESR Cayman Ltd., has entered into a new strategic agreement to establish a new development joint venture in South Korea with a total equity allocation of US$1 billion. The joint venture, ESR-KS II, will invest in and develop an industrial and […]
It’s no surprise that Canadian pension funds had a rough first quarter of 2020 and the latest data from Morneau Shepell Ltd.’s universe of pension managers’ pooled funds confirms just that. During the quarter, diversified pooled fund managers saw a median return of negative 10 per cent before management fees, which was 0.9 per cent […]