Pension Pulse

Amit Chowdry of Pulse 2.0 reports  Stonepeak And Bernhard Capital Partners acquire Cleco to strengthen Louisiana energy infrastructure: Stonepeak and Bernhard Capital Partners announced an agreement to acquire Cleco Group from a consortium including Macquarie Asset Management, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, and Manulife Investment Management, marking a significant transition in ownership of the Louisiana-based utility. Headquartered in Pineville, Louisiana, Cleco serves approximately 298,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers across 24 parishes and employs around 1,200 people. Following the transaction, the company will remain locally managed and operated, retain its workforce and benefits structure, and continue to be regulated by the Louisiana Public Service Commission. The acquisition is expected to bring additional capital and operational expertise to support Cleco’s ongoing efforts to enhance grid reliability, expand infrastruct...

Stephanie Ha of CTV News reports  PM Carney announces Canada’s first national sovereign wealth fund:  Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced Canada’s first national sovereign wealth fund, calling it the “Canada Strong Fund,” ahead of Tuesday’s spring economic update. Carney officially made the announcement in Ottawa on Monday morning, saying it will allow Canadians who have “a bit of extra money” to invest into it directly, similar to a government bond. The federal government will initially contribute $25 billion into the fund, which Carney says “will grow through asset recycling and reinvestment, creating even greater opportunities for future generations.” A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that uses government surplus reserves to invest in financial assets like stocks and bonds but is independently managed. Alberta has its own sovereign wealth fund, called the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, that was established back in 1976. Accordi...

Sean Conlon and Lisa Kailai Han of CNBC report the S&P 500, Nasdaq close at records, boosted by Intel, as investors hope for a restart to U.S.-Iran talks: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at record levels on Friday after investors were given a hopeful sign that peace talks between the U.S. and Iran would soon take place in Pakistan. The broad market index finished up 0.8% at 7,165.08, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.63% to settle at 24,836.60. Both indexes also scored fresh all-time intraday highs. However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 79.61 points, or 0.16%, to end the at 49,230.71. MS NOW reported, citing a Pakistani official, that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to arrive in Islamabad on Friday evening to have a discussion with Pakistani mediators about a possible second round of negotiations with the U.S. U.S. oil prices pulled back following the development. U.S.  West Texas Intermediate futures settled above...

Layan Odeh of Bloomberg reports  CAAT Pension Plan earns 8.4% as stock gains outweigh weak PE returns: CAAT Pension Plan earned 8.4% last year as buoyant stock performance outweighed soft returns in the fund’s private market portfolio.  The gains, which pushed assets to C$25.4 billion ($18.6 billion), were below the benchmark of 11.2%. That was driven “almost entirely” by the pension plan’s private equity allocation, which returned 1.5% compared to its benchmark of 19.6%, according to CAAT’s annual report published Thursday.  Public equity holdings gained 21.7% in 2025, while credit and real assets returned 3.7% and 4.1%, respectively .  Private markets suffered from constrained liquidity and subdued deal activity last year as higher interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainty weighed on investor sentiment and valuations, the Toronto-based pension plan said in the report.  The pension plan is “modestly” exposed to software companies affected by adv...