Pension Pulse

Nia Williams and Maiya Keidan of Reuters report: Canada's biggest pension managers boosted their investments in the country's major oil sands companies in the first quarter of 2021, raising questions about the funds' recent commitments to greening their portfolios. The cumulative investment by the country's top five pension funds into the U.S.-listed shares of Canada's top four oil sands producers jumped to $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2021, up 147% from a year ago, a Reuters analysis of U.S. 13-F filings show. Much of that increase, which bucked a declining trend since 2018, came from rising prices of shares already owned, but the funds also purchased more shares. The five funds, in order of size, are Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), British Columbia Investment Management Corp (BCI) and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP), whic...

Earlier today, Aaron Saldanha and Sinéad Carew of Reuters reported that surging AMC shares poised to end week up more than 150%: Shares of AMC Entertainment (AMC) hit record highs before paring gains on Friday, putting the movie theater chain on track for a 156% weekly gain. AMC's shares were last up 16.4% at $30.87 after earlier hitting a high of $36.72,and on track for their biggest weekly gains since late January. Shares in GameStop were down 2.4%on Friday. Shares of the videogame retailer, which has been at the heart of the so-called "stonks" retail trading mania this year, were still set for its best weekly gain since mid-March, up about 40% so far. Retail traders' shift into so-called meme stocks - shares favored by the denizens of online communities - comes on the back of a selloff in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies whose prices have slumped in recent weeks. AMC saw some $127 mln in inflows from retail investors on Thursday, according to Vanda ...

  I NA, CDPQ, APG, and ADIA recently signed a memorandum of understanding to establish Indonesia’s first infrastructure investment platform:  Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), APG Asset Management (APG), and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish Indonesia’s first infrastructure-focused investment platform and INA’s first investment vehicle since its   establishment. Through this MOU, INA plans to explore opportunities for joint investments in partnership with CDPQ, APG and ADIA in Indonesian toll-road assets. The Investment Platform would be the consortium members’ primary vehicle for toll road investments in Indonesia. Over the next six months, the consortium has agreed to evaluate a set of initial toll road investment opportunities that would form the operating base of the Investment Platform. Once established, th...

Sarah Min of Chief Investment Officer reports OMERS takes a 25% stake in International Schools Partnership: The private equity investment division for the Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (OMERS) has bought a 25% stake in International Schools Partnership (ISP), a UK-based global network of K-12 private schools, as part of the pension fund’s private market expansion in Europe.  The acquisition from Swiss asset manager Partners Group will value the international school group at about $2.3 billion, OMERS Private Equity said Monday. Partners Group will still hold a majority stake in ISP.  ISP was part of a buy-and-build strategy for Partners Group when it first founded the school network in 2013. The private markets asset manager said it planned to capitalize on consolidation opportunities in the K-12 school market.  Now, the investors are planning to continue expanding ISP’s international network. Since 2014, under the leadership of its chief exec...

Christine Dobby of the Toronto Star reports CUPE seeks a review of OMERS pension plan performance after a loss in 2020: The union representing 125,000 Ontario municipal workers who are members of the OMERS pension plan is calling for a third-party review of the plan’s investment performance after it posted a “shocking” loss in 2020. The Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario published a report Wednesday that highlights what it says is a long-term pattern of underperformance by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, which manages the retirement income of more than 500,000 active and retired municipal employees . The public call comes after OMERS published its annual results in February, revealing it had lost 2.7 per cent in 2020, a significant swing from the 6.9-per-cent gain it had set as a benchmark. “We’d been warned that 2020 might be a bad year for returns, but we were shocked at how bad,” CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn said during a virtual press ...