Pension Pulse

Yun Li and Maggie Fitzgerald of CNBC report the Dow drops more than 600 points Friday, suffers worst week since October amid GameStop trading frenzy: U.S. stocks fell sharply on Friday, wrapping up a roller-coaster week on Wall Street as heightened speculative trading by retail investors continued to unnerve the market. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 620.74 points, or 2%, to 29,982.62, the first time the 30-stock gauge has closed below the 30,000 mark since Dec. 14. The S&P 500 fell 1.9% to 3,714.24 as 10 sectors registered losses. The Nasdaq Composite slid 2% to 13,070.69 as Apple dropped 3.7% and other major tech names slipped. All three major averages dropped more than 3% this week, posting their worst week since October. For January, the blue-chip Dow and the S&P 500 fell 2% and 1.1%, respectively, suffering their first negative month in four. The tech-heavy Nasdaq eked out a 1.4% gain on the month. Shares of GameStop jumped 67.9% after Robinhood said it ...

Globe News Wire reports Canadian long term care company Revera Inc. is tax dodging to boost profits according to a new report by CICTAR: Canada’s second largest long term care home operator, Revera, appears to use aggressive tax avoidance schemes in the UK, according to a new report, Tax Dodging by a Canadian Crown Corporation: Revera Living Making a Killing , from the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR). High numbers of COVID-related deaths in for-profit homes have exposed longstanding systemic problems across the long-term care sector, including chronic understaffing and low pay . The report shows how Revera’s UK care homes generate large revenues, but appear to shift profits offshore, raising major concerns in the UK and Canada that Revera-owned homes prioritize profit over people. Revera is entirely owned by the C$170 billion Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP). Tax dodging in the UK would violate PSP-endorsed respons...

Nathalie Wong of Bloomberg News reports Amazon extends Boston footprint with seaport office lease: Amazon.com Inc. is taking more office space in Boston’s Seaport district. The e-commerce giant signed a lease for 630,000 square feet (58,500 square meters) at One Boston Wharf Road, a 17-story mixed-use building, according to a statement Tuesday. The deal follows Amazon’s agreement in 2018 to rent 430,000 square feet of offices at 111 Harbor Way, which is under construction nearby and set to be ready this year. The leases are part of the company’s plan to add more than 5,000 jobs in Boston over the next few years -- most across the two new buildings. The positions it plans to create include jobs in software development, artificial intelligence and machine learning, Amazon said in its own statement Tuesday. The tech titan has been expanding its workforce beyond Seattle, setting up major office centers and satellite locations in other localities including New York, Vancouv...

Kelly Pickerel, editor in chief of Solar Power World, reports that First Solar sells 10-GW utility-scale development pipeline to Leeward Renewable Energy: First Solar has entered into a purchase and sale agreement with Leeward Renewable Energy Development, in which Leeward will acquire First Solar’s utility-scale project platform of approximately 10 GW AC . The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021. Headquartered in Texas, Leeward is a portfolio company of OMERS Infrastructure, an investment arm of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension plans. Upon closing of the transaction, Leeward will acquire the U.S. project platform, which includes the Rabbitbrush, Madison, Oak Trail, Horizon, and Ridgely projects that are expected to commence construction in the next two years, as well as the 30-MW AC Barilla Solar project, which is operational. First Solar will retain 1.1 GW AC of projects in the United States that are expected to be sold s...

Paula Sambo of Bloomberg reports one of Canada’s largest pensions vows net zero emissions by 2050: The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan committed to reaching net-zero emissions across its investment portfolio within three decades. Ontario Teachers’ will increase investments in climate-friendly projects, ensure companies in its portfolio manage and report their emissions every year and work with them to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, said its chief investment officer. The fund manages C$205 billion ($161 billion) of retirement savings for educators in Canada’s most populous province. “This entails a sustained effort from our end, first in growing our investments in smart climate and energy solutions,” CIO Ziad Hindo said in an interview. “We have already been expanding our capabilities to identify, evaluate more and more opportunities on the green side.” The pledge comes about two months after the heads of eight leading Canadian pension plan managers called on companies and inv...