Pension Pulse

Davis Giangiulio of CNBC reports Ken Griffin says Citadel unwound more than 80% of risk tied to Situational Awareness portfolio: Ken Griffin of Citadel in a letter to clients on Friday addressed for the first time the firm’s purchase of assets from Leopold Aschenbrenner’s Situational Awareness hedge fund.  According to a letter obtained by CNBC’s Sara Eisen, Griffin told clients that Citadel has unwound more than 80% of the aggregate risk from the original portfolio purchased by conducting more than 100 block trades over $4 billion in market value. Griffin detailed in the letter that Citadel entered discussions with Situational Awareness to acquire some of the fund’s holdings on July 29. One day later, CNBC’s David Faber reported that Situational Awareness was forced to sell all of its public stock positions after facing steep losses. Citadel was later revealed as the buyer of the assets. “A transaction of this magnitude could not have been completed without the extra...

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...