Pension Pulse

Barbara Shecter of the National Post reports why Caisse CEO Charles Emond thinks Canada is close to getting the infrastructure formula right: Spurred by the looming trade renegotiation with the United States , institutional investors and the Canadian government are finally on the same page and ready to push ahead with multi-billion-dollar projects in priority areas such as infrastructure , critical minerals and housing , says Charles Emond, chief executive of one of the country’s biggest pension funds . “The government (is) actually getting more synchronized with what private investors are looking for,” said Emond, who leads the $496-billion Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec . “You can sense a momentum.  That is a big difference from before.”   Ottawa is pushing to “catalyze” hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment to shore up government spending on projects that can boost the economy and reduce dependence on the U.S., and Emond said the r...

Matthew Griffin of Bloomberg reports  Wall Street Remembers a Wild 2025: Jed Ellerbroek barely slept. It was the evening of Wednesday, April 2, and President Donald Trump had just appeared in the White House Rose Garden, brandishing a large placard with the punitive tariff rates he was slapping on countries around the world. On Wall Street, it quickly sunk in that Trump was serious about shattering a global trading system that he said was wired against the US. Over dinner with his family and throughout the night — as Asian markets tumbled, initiating a meltdown that would continue around the globe — Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management, tried to game out what would happen next. When he and his team hunkered down the next morning at their office in St. Louis, they sought to work through the implications for their stock holdings. As the selloff raged that day, Amazon.com Inc. — their largest position — tumbled nearly 10%. Li...

Steve Randall of Wealth Professional reports  CPP Investments, Goodman team up on a $14b European data centre push: CPP Investments has entered a major European data centre partnership with Australia’s Goodman Group, committing to a A$14 development platform aimed at meeting accelerating demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The 50/50 joint venture, known as the Goodman European Data Centre Development Partnership, will focus on prime locations in Germany, the Netherlands and France. The strategy centres on building large-scale, high-quality facilities in some of Europe’s most sought-after digital infrastructure markets. Initial equity commitments total A$3.9 billion (€2.2 billion), earmarked for four projects in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris. Once completed, the developments are expected to deliver 435 megawatts of primary power capacity and 282 megawatts of IT load. All sites already ...

Today, Ontario Teachers’ announced the appointment of Jenny Hammarlund as Executive Managing Director, Real Estate: Toronto, Canada  -- Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') today announces the appointment of Jenny Hammarlund to the position of Executive Managing Director, Real Estate, effective January 5, 2026. In this role, Ms. Hammarlund will be responsible for guiding the real estate team’s strategy, portfolio, and asset management activities globally. Ms. Hammarlund will be based in London and become a member of the Investments Senior Leadership Team, reporting to Gillian Brown, Chief Investment Officer, Public & Private Investments. Ms. Hammarlund has over 20 years of experience in private equity, primarily focused on real estate acquisitions. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Hammarlund led the real estate investment group in the UK and Europe. She joined Cadillac Fairview (CF) in 2021 and moved to Ontario Teachers’ in ...