Pension Pulse

James Bradshaw of the Globe and Mail reports Alberta pension manager AIMCo reports 4.5-per-cent gain in first half of 2023, keeps cautious stance: Alberta Investment Management Corp. reported a 4.5-per-cent gain on its investments in the first half of the year, but the pension fund manager is staying cautious against a backdrop of slow economic activity. The half-year investment returns posted by AIMCo, which amounted to $6.1-billion in investment income, were “right around benchmark levels,” chief investment officer Marlene Puffer said in an interview Thursday. AIMCo does not disclose the benchmarks it uses to measure returns at the mid-year mark, and Ms. Puffer said lagging valuation updates for some private asset classes make timely comparisons difficult. AIMCo has earned an average annual return of 5.4 per cent over four years, and 7.3 per cent over 10 years. The Edmonton-based manager, which invests on behalf of 17 pension, endowment, insurance and government funds i...

Artemis reports the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) grew ILS investments 35% in 2022: Large Canadian institutional retirement fund, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), grew its allocation to insurance-linked securities (ILS) investments in 2022, with the asset class nearing 1% of its overall portfolio by the end of the year. HOOPP reported in its latest annual report, that its investment allocation into insurance-linked securities (ILS) and ILS funds grew by 35% during the last year. That was at a faster rate than the previous year, when it added 31% to the ILS portfolio . By the end of 2022, HOOPP’s ILS asset allocation had reached C$973 million (approx. US $718.7m), up from C$721 million (approx. US $575m) at the end of 2021. The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) started allocating to insurance-linked securities (ILS), largely via insurance-linked funds, as well as some direct investments into other reinsurance-related securities, in late...

Lora Kolodny of CNBC reports Redwood Materials, run by ex-Tesla CTO, raises $1 billion to expand recycling operations in the United States: Redwood Materials, the battery and e-waste recycling startup founded by former Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel, announced Tuesday that it has closed a $1 billion funding round to expand operations in the U.S. The company takes spent electric vehicle batteries, breaks them down and uses the metals from them — including nickel, copper, cobalt and lithium — to produce new components that can go into EV batteries. One of Redwood’s major goals is to produce battery components domestically to reduce some of the global trade and geopolitical risks around the EV industry. Redwood also aims to use as much recycled material as possible to reduce the environmental effect the auto industry transitions from internal combustion vehicles to battery electrics and hybrids . While Redwood initially focused on recycling, it also engages in refi...

Patrick DeRochie, senior manager of Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health , wrote an op-ed for the Globe and Mail, stating Canada is burning, so why is our national pension fund still heavily into fossil fuels?: As Canada experiences a record-shattering summer of deadly extreme weather, it’s worth remembering that our national pension fund has poured much of our retirement savings into the primary cause of the climate crisis: fossil fuels. In doing so, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is also undermining its own purpose: to provide Canadians with retirement security by achieving a maximum rate of return without undue risk of loss. Fossil fuel industries, after all, must be rapidly phased out to ensure a safe climate future. This summer’s unprecedented heat waves, wildfires and floods have taken an immense toll on communities, workers, wildlife and ecosystems, underscoring the immediacy of the climate emergency for many Canadians. Scientists are clear th...