Pension Pulse

Australia's Your Neightborhood reports Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Hines expand with two build-to-rent acquisitions in Brisbane: Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers’) and global real estate investment manager, Hines, have made a significant move into   Brisbane ’s growing Build-to-Rent (BTR) market. The recent acquisition of two BTR assets, totalling 354 units, aligns with the organisation’s strategic focus on expanding its multi-family portfolio in key Australian cities. The Australian multi-family market, particularly in cities like Brisbane, is seeing rapid growth. Build-to-Rent properties are increasingly popular as housing demand rises alongside the country’s growing population. With more Australians leaning toward rental properties, the Brisbane real estate market is poised for continued expansion. These recent acquisitions by Ontario Teachers’ and Hines exemplify the potential within the Brisbane property market, driven by strategic, amenity-

Deborah Sophia of Reuters reports Equinix signs $15 billion joint venture to build U.S. data center infrastructure: Data center firm Equinix is forming a joint venture with Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board with goals to raise more than $15 billion in capital, the company said on Tuesday. Equinix and its partners will use the capital to expand the U.S. footprint of "hyperscale" data centers, which are the largest in the industry, offering massive networking capacity and typically consuming as much power as a big city. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT The announcement comes at a time when companies across industries are racing to deploy artificial intelligence technologies in their operations, fueling demand for the immense computing power and storage provided by data centers. Large data centers, such as the ones Equinix is looking to scale, are typically used by hyperscalers, which include the world's biggest technology

Gillian Tan, Swetha Gopinath and Layan Odeh of Bloomberg report OMERS to stop making direct private equity investments in Europe: The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System will stop making direct private equity investments in Europe as the pension fund overhauls its operations there, according to people familiar with the matter. Omers plans to shift its exposure in the region by investing alongside partners and third-party managers, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.  Jonathan Mussellwhite, who led private equity in Europe since 2018, left Omers earlier this month, a spokesperson said in a statement Thursday. The pension fund said previously that Michael Graham, its global head of private equity, will retire in February. Omers will launch a global funds strategy within a new group called Private Capital. The C$25.1 billion ($18.6 billion) private equity portfolio will be split, with Michael Block leading the global

By Liz Lee and Ellen Zhang of Reuters report China launches late stimulus push to meet 2024 growth target: China's central bank on Friday lowered interest rates and injected liquidity into the banking system as Beijing assembled a last-ditch stimulus assault to pull economic growth back towards this year's roughly 5% target. More fiscal measures are expected to be announced before China's week-long holidays starting on Oct. 1, after a meeting of the Communist Party's top leaders showed an increased sense of urgency about mounting economic headwinds.   Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources, that megacities Shanghai and Shenzhen are planning to lift key home purchase restrictions in coming weeks, joining a long list of smaller cities that have done so to ease a years-long property crisis.   On the heels of the Politburo huddle, China plans to issue special sovereign bonds worth about 2 trillion yuan ($284.43 billion) this year as part of fresh fisca