Pension Pulse

Freschia Gonzales of Wealth Professional reports  Quebec pension giant bets big on Brazil's power grid: Two of Latin America's largest energy infrastructure investors are consolidating their Brazilian transmission assets into a single platform, betting on the country's grid modernization push.  La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Colombia-based Grupo Energía Bogotá (GEB) have signed a final agreement to merge their respective Brazilian power transmission holdings into a jointly controlled, 50/50 venture under the name Verene Energia S.A.   The combined entity will hold 26 electric transmission concession agreements, more than 9,000 km of transmission lines, and over 400 employees across 17 Brazilian states.   A scale the partners say places Verene among Brazil's top five transmission operators.  Verene will pursue growth through network optimization, infrastructure expansion, and potential acquisitions, aligned with Bra...

Sean Conlon, Sarah Min and Lisa Kailai Han of CNBC report the Dow loses more than 500 points on Friday as tech slumps and yields spike: Stocks fell on Friday, bogged down by losses in technology stocks and a rise in U.S. Treasury yields, after a summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping ended and left traders worried about no major policy breakthroughs. The S&P 500 shed 1.24% to end at 7,408.50, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 1.54% to 26,225.14. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 537.29 points, or 1.07%. Investors took profits in tech after the group saw sharp gains recently. Notably, Intel retreated 6%, while Advanced Micro Devices and Micron Technology lost 5.7% and 6.6%, respectively. Nvidia dropped 4.4%, while Cerebras Systems — which surged 68% Thursday after it began trading on the Nasdaq — shed 10%. “The group has witnessed an extremely unsustainable move in recent weeks and remains vulnerable to profit ta...

Christopher Neely of The Real Deal reports the German pension fund that lost $1B on a risky US real estate bet doesn’t want to talk about it: The managers of Germany’s largest public pension fund want to wipe their hands clean of their increasingly contentious exit from San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid.   Earlier this week, Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) — a state-run institution managing the pensions of 2.8 million public employees in Bavaria — rejected accusations raised in a recent lawsuit that it broke investment rules and stiffed one of its partners out of more than $30 million after selling the Transamerica Pyramid in March.  As part of that lawsuit filed last month, Deutsche Finance America claimed BVK “went to concerted, conspicuous lengths” to skip paying the firm its early termination fee of $31.3 million. The firm claimed that BVK paid its other partner — New York developer and face of the Transamerica Pyramid revival, Michael Shvo — $79...

Lauren Bailey of Markets Group takes a look inside the Halifax Port ILA/HEA Pension Plan’s ‘micro Maple 8’ strategy: Markets Group Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Blair Richards reveals how a small Canadian pension plan quietly outperformed expectations for decades — and why the traditional playbook was never going to be enough. In this wide-ranging conversation, the longtime CIO of the Halifax Port ILA/HEA Pension Plan shares how he transformed a conservative 70% fixed-income portfolio into a forward-thinking “mini Maple Model,” embracing private equity, private credit, and alternative assets long before it became mainstream. Richards explains how disciplined long-term investing, diversification across vintages, and a relentless focus on member outcomes helped the plan achieve a remarkable 134% solvency ratio and inflation-beating pension increases, while many other sponsors were abandoning defined-benefit pension plans altogether. He also opens up about o...

Matt Toledo of Chief Investment Officer reports  Ontario Teachers’ Pension Appoints Intelligence Strategy Head: The board of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan announced last week the appointment of Feifei Wu to the newly established role of senior managing director of investment technology and applied intelligence. Wu will lead the pension fund’s artificial intelligence strategy to strengthen governance and accelerate the adoption of the technology while partnering with investment leaders to ensure AI enables key business outcomes, according to the OTPP’s announcement. Wu will report to OTPP Chief Technology Officer Terry Hickey. “I am pleased to welcome Feifei to Ontario Teachers’ in this important role at a pivotal time in our technology journey,” Hickey said in a statement. “She brings a strong combination of technical expertise and proven leadership across global financial institutions. Her experience building high-performing technology teams and her forward-looki...