Pension Pulse

Hugh Son of CNBC reports on how Leopold Aschenbrenner built a $45 billion AI hedge fund — and lost most of it in days: Two years ago, Leopold Aschenbrenner argued he was one of few people in the world who saw the future clearly. In a sprawling, 165-page essay that became required reading in Silicon Valley, the former OpenAI researcher positioned himself as a kind of prophet for the coming age of artificial super intelligence. But this week, the limits of Aschenbrenner’s vision were on display when the AI-themed hedge fund he runs — named Situational Awareness, also the title of his viral June 2024 manifesto — ran into the harsh reality of tumbling semiconductor stocks and Wall Street margin calls. At its peak earlier this month, his fund sat atop $45 billion in assets. By Thursday, however, after being forced to offload all of his leveraged stock bets — including hard-hit names like SK Hynix and CoreWeave — to Ken Griffin’s Citadel at a discount, the fund’s holdings p...

Layan Odeh of Bloomberg reports  OMERS hires CAAT’s Buzanis to lead private equity funds business:  Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System hired a longtime executive from CAAT Pension Plan to help build its private equity funds strategy as it makes such investing a more central part of its buyout business. CAAT’s head of private markets, Adam Buzanis, will join Omers as head of funds. In that role, he’ll develop the external private equity funds strategy and advance efforts to ramp up co-investments, according to the pension plan. The move is the latest change in Omers’ investment team over the past several weeks after the departure of chief investment officer Ralph Berg, who left to join Singapore’s Temasek. Earlier this month, the pension plan elevated Michael Hill to global head of infrastructure and private equity and gave Michael Block a wider mandate for private capital investments. Omers has revamped its private equity unit in the past two years, halting ...

Veselina Petrova of Renewables Now reports  Elia, CPP Investments buy 1.8-GW North Sea grid link project from CIP: Belgian transmission system operator Elia Group SA (EBR:ELI) and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) said today they have acquired the 1.8-GW Tarchon, a subsea interconnector project planned to link Germany and the UK to allow the countries to share surplus clean electricity. The project will be bought from Copenhagen Infrastructure V, a fund managed by Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). Specifically, CPP Investments will buy a majority stake in the project, spending CAD 1 billion (USD 709.7m/EUR 622.5m) on a 75% ownership, while Elia will own the remaining 25% . The Belgian company will acquire minority holding through its WindGrid subsidiary, which invests in electricity transmission and offshore wind grid infrastructure. The new asset will extend CPP Investments’ commitment to invest in developing European energy infra...

Jack Gray of European Pensions reports  Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan to invest up to €200m in M&G’s CLO platform: Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has entered into a joint venture with M&G Investments to support the scaling of its European collateralised loan obligation (CLO) platform. The scheme has agreed to provide investment capacity of up to €200m for equity investments in future M&G Margay CLO issuances, and to participate in the long-term economics of M&G’s European CLO business and support the growth of the platform. M&G said the investment would support its operations in European private assets for global institutional investors. Through the combination of M&G’s credit research and investment capabilities in European broadly syndicated loans with Ontario Teachers’ institutional CLO investment experience and capital, the collaboration will look to support platform growth while providing strong returns. The capital will be deployed on ...

Vinny Vucago of FS Sustainability in Australia reports  La Caisse backs GO.FARM in $330m farmland push: Canadian institutional investor La Caisse has partnered with Australian agricultural investment manager GO. FARM to launch a $330 million investment platform targeting permanent horticulture assets, underscoring growing institutional demand for Australian farmland. The partnership will see La Caisse commit $300 million in equity alongside a further $30 million investment from GO. FARM, while also taking a minority stake in the Melbourne-based manager. La Caisse executive vice president and head of infrastructure and sustainability Emmanuel Jaclot said Australia remained an attractive destination for long-term agricultural investment. "Australia combines world class agricultural resources, strong export markers and significant land transformation opportunities," Jaclot said. "Through this partnership with GO. FARM, we are backing a proven operator with deep ...