Pension Pulse

Fred Imbert of CNBC reports, Dow ends volatile November with more than 150-point rally on hopes of a US-China trade deal at G-20 : Stocks rose on Friday after a Chinese official reportedly said the U.S. and China are finding common ground on trade ahead of a key meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 200 points while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. Reuters reported that a Chinese official said "consensus is steadily increasing" in U.S.-China trade talks. The official added, according to the report, that differences between the two countries remained. The report sent stocks to their highs of the day, erasing earlier losses. Jeff Powell, managing partner at Polaris Greystone Financial Group, said investors are taking a "wait-and-see approach" ahead of the meeting. "I don't think people are expecting too much of a change, bu...

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec put out a press release, Creation of a private capital fund led by FDN and including all Colombian pension funds to co-invest in infrastructure with CDPQ : An infrastructure co-investment platform was officially launched with the President of the Republic of Colombia, Iván Duque, the President and CEO of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Michael Sabia, and FDN President Clemente del Valle, as well as the presidents of all Colombian pension fund administrators in attendance. The FDN and Colombian pension fund administrators (AFPs) have created a new private capital fund of USD 490 million. This fund will co-invest with CDPQ through a platform whose objective is to make capital investments in infrastructure projects and companies for a total amount of up to USD 1 billion. CDPQ will contribute up to USD 510 million. The minimum size of each investment will be USD 50 million, split between the fund and CDPQ ...

It's been a busy month at PSP Investments so I decided to do a recap. At the beginning of the month, Benefits Canada reported, AIMCo, BCI, PSP close agreement to affiliate timber investments : The Alberta Investment Management Corp., the British Columbia Investment Management Corp. and the Public Sector Investment Board have closed a previously announced plan to conglomerate their long-term timber investments. Originally announced in August 2018 , the agreement affiliates timber investments TimberWest Forest Corp. and Island Timberlands Ltd. Partnership. Moving forward, the two organizations will continue as standalone companies, but share facilities and corporate services. The benefits for the move include improved logistics through the use of shared roads, sort yards and infrastructure, enhanced forest health through coordinated stewardship and integrated best practice approaches to managing the watershed, ecosystem and species at risk, according to a press rele...

Business Wire News reports, Fleet Complete Announces New Investment Partnership with Ontario Teachers' : Fleet Complete®, one of the fastest growing tech companies in the connected vehicle space, today announced that it has entered into a new investment partnership with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers’). Ontario Teachers’, Canada’s largest single-profession pension plan, is acquiring equity from existing investors, including funds managed by Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP), a leading private equity firm based in Chicago. Ontario Teachers’ will work in joint partnership with Fleet Complete’s management team and MDP to continue executing against the company’s strategic plan. “I am thrilled to partner with Ontario Teachers’ and it’s a bonus that we both share Toronto as our respective headquarters,” said Tony Lourakis, founder and CEO of Fleet Complete. “Ontario Teachers’ provides Fleet Complete with access to significant long-term capital. This, coupled wi...

Yaelle Gang of the Canadian Investment Review reports, Translating climate risk into the language of investors : A few decades ago, people were concerned about the depleting ozone layer. Then, in the late 1980s, the Montreal Protocol was ratified to phase out ozone depleting substances. Fast forward to today. The ozone hole is shrinking and is expected to completely close by 2060. “That says to me that if you get policy makers, if you get business leaders and scientists together you can come to solutions to these kinds of problems,” said James Davis, chief investment officer at OPTrust. Speaking at OPTrust’s climate change symposium on Nov. 20, 2018, Davis said that an investor’s role is to manage risk . “We can get a handle on the risk of a recession, stock market volatility, even the systemic risk of a financial crisis that we experienced in 2008, but climate change risk is even tougher,” he said. “We know it’s real, we know it’s slow moving. Its impact is not expec...