Pension Pulse

Dan Swinhoe of Data Center Dynamics reports IMCO invests $450 million in DataBank: The Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) is to invest up to US$450 million in DataBank, The Canadian company this week announced it has signed an agreement to invest in the company as part of DataBank’s recapitalization process, announced in June 2022 by DigitalBridge. Closing of the transaction is anticipated to be in Q4 2022. “Investing in high-quality companies and markets with secular growth is key to delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns for our clients. DataBank’s leadership position in digital infrastructure and experienced management team makes it an ideal investment for our infrastructure portfolio,” said Rossitsa Stoyanova, Chief Investment Officer, IMCO. “We look forward to partnering with DataBank’s management and our co-shareholders to execute the company’s business plan.” In June, DigitalBridge announced that affiliates of Swiss Life Asset Management AG and E

Barbara Shecter of the National Post reports Ottawa tries to entice Canadian pensions to finance EV battery plants: The federal government is trying to entice Canadian pensions to finance the building of dozens of electric battery plants and lease them back to the automotive industry. François-Philippe Champagne, the minister of innovation, science and industry, said the proposal would be a win for industry and for the retirement plans because it would speed up the building of plants to service growing demand for electric cars while providing stable returns to pensions.   Speaking at the Bloomberg Canadian Finance Conference on Thursday, Champagne said pairing institutional investors with large production facilities is not without precedent — citing Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P.’s agreement with Intel Corp. last month to jointly fund Intel’s under-construction semiconductor fabrication facility in Arizona. It would also help clear a “bottleneck” by acceleratin

Amanda White of Top1000funds sat down with HOOPP's CIO Michael Wissell to discuss their stellar results and biggest risks: As HOOPP chief investment officer Michael Wissell celebrates one year in the job Amanda White spoke to him about the sources of return for the fund’s excellent performance, it’s world-leading funded status, the evolution of the investment allocations and the fund’s biggest sources of risk. The headline facts about HOOPP’s performance since Michael Wissell became CIO include a return of 11.28 per cent for the year to March and a 120 per cent funded status. Behind the headlines Wissell and the team have been hard at work building the risk function and rolling out Aladdin, dynamically adjusting the portfolio to market conditions which included a doubling of the real estate commitments on the previous year, furiously building out the infrastructure team and making a commitment to be net zero. The C$114.4 billion plan for Ontario’s healthcare workers

David Ramli of Bloomberg reports Ontario pension aims to triple Asian assets within eight years: The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System aims to triple its assets in Asia-Pacific over the next eight years from the C$13 billion ($9.5 billion) it’s already deployed in the region, according to its President and Chief Executive Officer Blake Hutcheson. Speaking at the Milken Institute Asia Summit on Thursday, Hutcheson said the Canadian pension fund was in “full diversification mode.” “So far we’re very focused on India and Australia in two areas -- infrastructure and real estate -- and basically computer screen investing in the rest of Asia and Southeast Asia from an equities standpoint,” he said. The Ontario pension, also known as Omers, had C$119.5 billion in assets as of June 30. It posted a 0.4% loss for the first six months of the year partly due to a fall in public stocks. On Thursday, OMERS CEO Blake Hutcheson took part in a panel discussion at the Milken Instit