Pension Pulse

Amanda White of Top1000funds sat down with HOOPP's CIO Michael Wissell to discuss their stellar results and biggest risks: As HOOPP chief investment officer Michael Wissell celebrates one year in the job Amanda White spoke to him about the sources of return for the fund’s excellent performance, it’s world-leading funded status, the evolution of the investment allocations and the fund’s biggest sources of risk. The headline facts about HOOPP’s performance since Michael Wissell became CIO include a return of 11.28 per cent for the year to March and a 120 per cent funded status. Behind the headlines Wissell and the team have been hard at work building the risk function and rolling out Aladdin, dynamically adjusting the portfolio to market conditions which included a doubling of the real estate commitments on the previous year, furiously building out the infrastructure team and making a commitment to be net zero. The C$114.4 billion plan for Ontario’s healthcare workers ...

David Ramli of Bloomberg reports Ontario pension aims to triple Asian assets within eight years: The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System aims to triple its assets in Asia-Pacific over the next eight years from the C$13 billion ($9.5 billion) it’s already deployed in the region, according to its President and Chief Executive Officer Blake Hutcheson. Speaking at the Milken Institute Asia Summit on Thursday, Hutcheson said the Canadian pension fund was in “full diversification mode.” “So far we’re very focused on India and Australia in two areas -- infrastructure and real estate -- and basically computer screen investing in the rest of Asia and Southeast Asia from an equities standpoint,” he said. The Ontario pension, also known as Omers, had C$119.5 billion in assets as of June 30. It posted a 0.4% loss for the first six months of the year partly due to a fall in public stocks. On Thursday, OMERS CEO Blake Hutcheson took part in a panel discussion at the Milken Instit...

Barbara Shecter of the National Post reports CPPIB flexes its muscle in board rooms around the world to stem climate change: The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which invests on behalf of the country’s CPP pension scheme, used its influence as a major institutional investor to push 35 companies to make “material“ commitments and improvements to climate-related disclosures and practices in the past year, according to its latest report on sustainability investing made public Wednesday. Officials at Canada’s largest pension voted against 65 directors at 35 companies where they “concluded the board failed to demonstrate adequate consideration of physical and transition related impacts from climate change,” the report said. CPPIB, which invests in public and private companies including direct investments, voted in favour of climate-related shareholder proposals that sought deeper disclosures on topics such as operational emissions management, asset portfolio resilience and...

Swaraj Singh Dhanjal of Mint reports Ontario Teachers' sets up an office in Mumbai: Mumbai: Canadian pension fund Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, which manages assets worth over C$242.5 billion (Rs14.85 lakh crore, has established an on-the-ground presence in India, with the opening of a new office in Mumbai to build on its existing Indian portfolio, the pension fund manager said in a statement. With the establishment of an India office, Ontario Teachers’ becomes the third Canadian pension fund manager to set up a local team in India. Its larger counterparts CPP Investments and CDPQ already have local offices in the country. Having a local team and office will support Ontario Teachers’ in sourcing investments, nurturing long-term partnerships, and attracting strong local talent, the pension fund said. The office is in the financial hub of the Bandra Kurla Complex and is Ontario Teachers’ sixth global office and third in the Asia-Pacific region. Ontario Teachers’ hold...