Pension Pulse

Paula Sambo and Layan Odeh of Bloomberg report Credit boss at top Canada pension warns of ‘bubble-like’ AI rush: The credit chief for Canada’s largest pension sees signs of “bubble-like” exuberance in the rush to finance AI, cautioning that investors should scrutinize their exposure to the nascent technology.  “You cannot wake up one day and just say, ‘Well, we just had this theme that AI was great, and we woke up and it was 25% of our portfolio,’” Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s global head of credit investments, David Colla, said in an interview. Canada’s top pension plan, which oversees C$863.6 billion ($617.6 billion), continues to finance AI-tied projects, including those involving CoreWeave Inc., the largest of the so-called neoclouds that lease out AI chips. But the pension, whose AI investments make up about 3.5% of its credit portfolio, is becoming increasingly selective about such bets.  “There will be winners and losers along the way,” Colla said. “And t...

James Bradshaw of The Globe and Mail reports  Blackstone, Canadian pension funds invest $3.1-billion for LNG Canada stake: Blackstone Inc. and four major Canadian pension funds are paying US$3.1-billion to buy a minority stake in a Mitsubishi Corp. subsidiary that owns a share of LNG Canada’s liquefaction business. Mitsubishi owns a 15-per-cent stake in LNG Canada through a subsidiary and will stay the controlling partner of that entity. The investor group is acquiring a 49.9-per-cent non-controlling interest in the Mitsubishi subsidiary, or roughly half of Mitsubishi’s stake. Blackstone is leading the investor group that includes Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, Investment Management Corp. of Ontario and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board. LNG Canada operates the country’s first natural-gas export terminal, an $18-billion facility in Kitimat, B.C., that opened in June, 2025. Under the deal announced Monday, Mitsubish...

Grace O'Donnell , David Hollerith and Ines Ferré of Yahoo Finance report the Nasdaq, Dow, S&P 500 clobbered as October closes with brutal sell-off: US stocks plunged in the final trading day of the month as earnings from Amazon ( AMZN ) and Alphabet ( GOOG , GOOGL ) this week rekindled concerns about the amount of money Big Tech is spending on its AI ambitions. The Nasdaq Composite ( ^IXIC ) tumbled 2.8% as a tech-fueled sell-off intensified. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI ) fell 1.2%, or over 650 points, while the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) dropped 2%. For the month, the Dow gained 1.5%, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 gave up gains, falling 5.2% and 1.2%, respectively. October marked the worst month for the Nasdaq since March 2025. Stocks fell for the second day in a row after Amazon and Alphabet posted rare earnings misses , renewing concerns about the sustainability of the AI boom. Amazon shares fell 2%, while Alphabet continued to erase market valu...

Sam Fenwick of Telco Magazine reports  BCE sells a 49.9% stake in Bell’s tower assets to La Caisse: Mirko Bibic, President and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada, will use the US$1.74bn from La Caisse to fund AI growth and reduce debt Bell Canada is selling a 49.9% stake in a newly formed wireless tower infrastructure company to global investment group La Caisse for CAD2.45bn (US$1.74bn). The new entity, dubbed TowerCo (its final name will be announced at transaction close), is valued at around CAD4.91bn (US$3.49bn) and, according to BCE, will become Canada's largest dedicated tower company with more than 5,000 sites. BCE, Bell Canada's parent company, expects the deal to close in Q1 2027, provided it receives the necessary regulatory approvals and satisfies other customary closing conditions. TowerCo will lease capacity on the transferred towers back to Bell and will focus on growth through new site builds, site densification and third-party colocation. Bell will retain a 50.1% cont...