Pension Pulse

Barbara Shecter of the National Post reports  Brookfield and CPPIB team up to buy US$5.2 billion industrial REIT: Two of Canada’s largest institutional investors are paying US$5.2 billion to acquire LXP Industrial Trust, a New York-based company with expertise in buying and developing premium industrial real estate in key logistics markets in the United States.  Brookfield Asset Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are paying a 19.8 per cent premium to the 90-day volume-weighted average price for the publicly traded r eal estate investment trust, which focuses on Class A warehouse and distribution investments in 12 markets across the Sunbelt and U.S. Midwest. LXP went public in 1993 as Lexington Realty Trust and trades on the New York Stock Exchange. It began as a diversified net-lease real estate investment trust and transitioned into what is now primarily a single-tenant industrial REIT focused on high-quality warehouse and distribution assets ...

James Bradshaw of the Globe and Mail reports  CAAT governance review leads to changes at the pension plan: The CAAT Pension Plan is making changes to improve its governance over executive compensation, workplace relationships and succession planning after failures in the plan’s oversight spurred an abrupt overhaul of its senior leadership earlier this year. In a letter to members and employers published on Friday, the board of trustees for the $25.4-billion pension plan said it made “enhancements” to its governance procedures after a third-party review, which began last December and concluded earlier this year. CAAT did not release the full results of that review, which was led by Carol Hansell, the founder and senior partner of Hansell LLP. And the letter to members provides only a broad outline of the governance changes that have been implemented. CAAT hired Ms. Hansell after some of the plan’s most senior executives, in a letter sent to trustees in November, 2025, u...

Grace O'Donnell , Jake Conley and Ines Ferré of Yahoo Finance report the Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq post weekly losses as semiconductors get smoked: US stocks declined on Friday, with the major indexes posting weekly losses led by declines in the semiconductor sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by about 0.7%, while the S&P 500 declined by 1%. The Nasdaq Composite shed 1.4% following a downbeat day on Wall Street and the release of the world's most powerful open AI model . The S&P 500 dropped more than 1.5% for the week while the Nasdaq declined 2.9%. The Dow lost nearly 1% over the past five sessions.   A sell-off in chip stocks dampened sentiment on Friday as the PHLX Semiconductor Index ( ^SOX ) entered a bear market. However, the sector closed off its session lows as investors bought the dip. "Magnificent Seven" stocks closed out the Friday session and week mixed, with Apple ( AAPL ) gaining 6% for the week, while Alphabet ( GOOG ,...

Today, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced that Cathy Cranston was appointed Board Chair, starting next year: July 16, 2026 – Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is pleased to announce that Cathy Cranston will be appointed Board Chair, effective January 1, 2027. She has been an esteemed member of the board since 2019 and currently serves as the Chair of the People & Compensation Committee and as a Member of the Investment and Enterprise Risk Committees.  Ms. Cranston’s appointment was made by the Ontario Government and the Ontario Teachers’ Federation, who are the plan’s co-sponsors. She will succeed current Board Chair Steve McGirr when he retires from the board at the end of 2026 after successfully serving his full term. Ms. Cranston built a 32-year career in progressive roles at BMO Financial Group, most recently as Treasurer. She previously held senior roles including Head of Financial Strategy, Capital and Funding, and Chief Financial Officer, Priva...

William Melhado of the Sacramento Bee reports  CalPERS reports one of the strongest years of investment returns over the last decade: California's largest public pension system reported on Monday a net investment return of 14.8% over the last 12 months, one of the strongest years in the last decade. Bolstered by a particularly successful year in the stock market, the California Public Employees' Retirement System now has 85% of the money to cover its future pension benefits, CEO Marcie Frost announced Monday morning at the board of administration's offsite meeting in Monterrey. The reported returns are still preliminary and will be finalized in the coming months. The massive pension fund's assets totaled more than $637 billion as of June 30, the end of the fiscal year. The strong returns, which were led by public and private equity, were higher than last year's returns of 11.6% and the assumed rate of return of 6.8%. The retirement system...