Pension Pulse

This afternoon I had an interesting conversation with Marc-André Blanchard, Executive Vice-President and Head of CDPQ Global and Global Head of Sustainability. Mr. Blanchard is a very busy man so I was pleased to have the opportunity to talk to him and I want to begin by thanking him for taking the time to talk to me and also thank Conrad Harrington for arranging this discussion. Let me just say this was the first time I spoke with Marc-André and found him very nice, polished, classy and extremely knowledgeable. He spoke perfect English and he has tremendous experience so when you speak with him, you get a good sense that he brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the organization. I told him he acts like the ambassador of CDPQ to the outside world and in his role as Head of CDPQ Global and Global Head of Sustainability he meets with many different stakeholders across the private and public sector. He told me he tries to leverage the institution to form soli...

Bert Clark, IMCO's President and CEO wrote a comment on LinkedIn on an investor's farewell to 2023: Like a movie with many plot twists, 2023 is the kind of year where you want to see the ending before making any pronouncements!  The end of the year is still about two weeks away, so I am taking some risk publishing a farewell today!  But, here we go… 2023 has served up many surprises. At the beginning of the year, things did not look promising. The Economist World Ahead 2023 predicted: “Major economies will go into recession as central banks raise interest rates to stifle inflation, an after-effect of the pandemic since inflamed by high energy prices.” Blackrock Investment Institute commented: “ The new regime of greater macro and market volatility is playing out. A recession is for...

IPE Real Assets reports Oxford Properties sells controlling stake in C$1.3bn Canadian industrial parks to TPG: Global asset manager TPG has acquired a 75% stake in a C$1.3bn (€888m) industrial park portfolio in Canada owned by Oxford Properties. TPG, investing on behalf of a fund managed by its real estate arm, has acquired the majority interest in Brampton Business Park and Vaughan Business Park, Oxford’s two industrial business parks in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Oxford will retain the remaining 25% interest in the assets and will continue to manage the fully leased 5.1m sqft portfolio.   Jacob Muller, partner at TPG, said: “We see the GTA as one of the most attractive industrial markets globally, with strong real estate fundamentals and population and employment growth outpacing many major US markets. “We have followed the Canadian industrial sector for several years, and believe this joint venture provides a unique opportunity to enter the mar...

Rasak Musah Baba of IPE Real Assets reports CPP Investments backs Octopus Energy’s expansion with further £300m: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) has backed Octopus Energy Group’s global expansion plan with a further £300m (€348m) commitment. CPP Investments, which manages the assets of the C$576bn (€394bn) Canada Pension Plan,  invested an initial $300m in December 2021 to help the renewable-energy specialist’s digital customer-services platform Kraken and boost its smart-grid capabilities. Last year it again  backed Octopus Energy Group’s global expansion plan with a further $225m commitment. The Canadian investor said the latest commitment increases its ownership of Octopus and is part of a funding round co-led by CPP Investments. “This investment will support Octopus’ continued global growth, primarily through the deployment of Octopus’ technology platform, Kraken, and the furthering of renewable energy, heat pump and electric vehicle ...