Pension Pulse

Alexandra Heal of the Financial Times reports  Canadian pension giant turns to Blackstone and KKR to seal infrastructure megadeals: One of the world’s biggest infrastructure investors is turning to private capital groups to help it land megadeals, as firms such as KKR & Co. Inc., Blackstone Inc. and BlackRock Inc. expand their influence in a sector long dominated by pension funds . Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has built almost US$80 billion in exposure to energy and infrastructure by investing directly in companies. But in the past year it has started backing some of the biggest managers’ funds, it told the FT. “Infrastructure deals are becoming increasingly large,” said James Bryce, head of infrastructure at CPPIB. “As an investor with [a fund], are we able to open up for both of us deal opportunities that we may not have been able to chase on our own?” CPPIB’s shift demonstrates the extent of the infrastructure market’s transformation from a backwater where...

Layan Odeh of Bloomberg reports Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan's PE boss departs: Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan’s global private equity head Lori Hall-Kimm is leaving to pursue another opportunity. Mark Cormier and Roman Gula, both managing directors within the private equity group, will succeed Hall-Kimm as acting co- heads on an interim basis and report to Chief Investment Officer Michael Wissell, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg. A representative for HOOPP confirmed the contents of the memo. Since Hall-Kimm joined HOOPP in 2022, the private equity arm’s net assets climbed to C$24.2 billion ($17.5 billion) from roughly C$20 billion. She previously spent six years at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, where she held several roles within its private equity unit, according to her LinkedIn profile. HOOPP, which had C$132 billion of assets at the end of 2025, serves hospital and community-based healthcare workers in Canada’s most populous prov...

Last week, IMCO CEO Bert Clark wrote a comment on LinkedIn on why it's time  to look beyond some common measures of investment performance: Many Canadian pension funds report annually on their net value add (NVA) — the extent to which their returns exceed chosen benchmarks, net of management fees and operating expenses. Sector observers sometimes treat this figure as a proxy for overall investment performance. In recent years, many pensions have had to explain their negative NVA, particularly those with private assets that have tended to underperform public markets. In doing so, some pointed instead to their smoother long-term investment results as better indicators of overall investment performance. But both NVA and return volatility are imperfect measures of investment success. NVA is hard to measure, typically quite small, and does not directly reflect pension objecti...

Chris Tolomia of Quartz reports  Norway sovereign wealth fund posts record $184B profit, discloses SpaceX stake: Norway's Government Pension Fund Global posted a first-half profit of more than 1.75 trillion Norwegian kroner, or roughly $184.9 billion, a record for a six-month period, as equity markets — particularly in Asia — surged in the second quarter. The fund also disclosed a stake in SpaceX, according to CNBC .  The fund returned 9.4% in the first half, outperforming its benchmark index by 0.22 percentage points. Its total value stood at 22,683 billion kroner, or around $2.34 trillion, at the end of June. Equities, which make up 72.1% of the portfolio, returned 13% over the period, with the technology sector — up 25.3% — and telecommunications sector — up 42.9% — contributing the most. Consumer discretionary was the weakest sector, falling 4%. "The result is driven by good returns in the equity market, particularly from Asian technology stocks," Norg...

 Layan Odeh of Bloomberg reports  Canada’s top pension earns 7.5% in its best quarter in over a decade: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board earned 7.5% in its first fiscal quarter, fueling its best performance since 2015 with investments in stocks and energy.  Net assets rose to C$863.6 billion ($622.5 billion) in the period ended June 30, up about 9% from the previous quarter. “Our investment portfolio remains well positioned to benefit from favorable public equity market performance, with meaningful contributions across our globally diversified portfolio,”  Chief Executive Officer John Graham said in a statement Friday. Public equity holdings were buoyed by AI-related sectors and “resilient” corporate earnings. Investments in real assets — particularly energy — as well as a stronger US dollar further boosted returns, according to the statement.  Canada’s largest pension plan made 14 credit investments during the quarter, the largest being $1 billion in Bla...