Pension Pulse

Bryan McGovern of Benefits Canada reports  Canada’s largest pension funds joining Australian peers to increase investments in both countries: Canada’s largest pension funds are joining an initiative that aims to boost pension investments between Canada and Australia. The Canadian-Australian Pension Funds Investment Initiative, announced Wednesday during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Australia, will create a framework for pension funds in the two countries to discuss policy barriers and associated solutions to improve the current business environment. The agreement includes participation from the Alberta Investment Management Corp., the British Columbia Investment Management Corp., the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, CPP Investments, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, the Investment Management Corp. of Ontario, the Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board. The part...

Tyler Choi of Sustainable Biz reports  Brookfield, BCI, Norges to launch Northview Energy: Brookfield Asset Management, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) and the manager of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund have joined forces to create a renewables company named Northview Energy, which could acquire over $1 billion of assets (all figures US unless otherwise noted) in future deals. Scheduled to launch in Q2 and valued at approximately $2.6 billion , Northview is described as a private firm that will acquire and own a diversified portfolio of contracted, operating renewable assets in the U.S. and Canada. Northview is expected to acquire a seed portfolio of assets from companies managed by Brookfield, such as U.S. companies Deriva Energy and Scout Clean Energy . The seed portfolio, Brookfield said in a release, is to comprise 22 contracted utility-scale solar and onshore wind installations in markets “experiencing strong energy demand growth across ...

Canadian Property Management reports  CPP Investments inks Nordic data centre deal: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) is furthering its collaboration with the global digital infrastructure company, Equinix, through joint acquisition of the atNorth data centre portfolio, stretching across five Nordic nations. CPP Investments will contribute roughly USD $1.6 billion to secure a 60 per cent controlling interest in atNorth, which encompasses eight operational data centres and three high-density colocation facilities now in development. “The Nordics are an attractive market for data centre growth and the opportunity to partner with Equinix on this acquisition allows us to deploy capital at scale into a high-quality platform,” says Maximilian Biagosch, senior managing director and global head of real assets with CPP Investments. The two investors are already part of a three-way partnership with the sovereign wealth fund, GIC, focused on develop...

Sean Conlon and Pia Sinh of CNBC report the Dow closes more than 500 points lower after hot inflation report, mounting concerns about AI impact: Stocks dropped on Friday after the latest producer price index data came in much hotter than expected, adding sticky inflation to a list of concerns that has caused market turbulence this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 521.28 points, or 1.05%, to close at 48,977.92. The S&P 500 closed down 0.43% at 6,878.88, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.92% to settle at 22,668.21. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished in the red for February amid growing fears about the impact of artificial intelligence on specific industries and the overall economy. Those fears were exacerbated after Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Block said it’s laying off more than 4,000 employees — nearly half of its workforce. Stocks in the financial sector and other areas of the market tied to the economic cycle pulled back Friday. Stocks lin...

Sophie Baker of Pensions & Investments reports liquidity focus pays off for Ontario Teachers’ as dual CIOs mark two-year milestone: It’s been two years since the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan restructured its leadership team, appointing two people to oversee investments — and despite some major changes and challenges in global markets, the so-called dual CIOs haven’t made any knee-jerk reactions.  Rather, the focus for the two has largely been creating liquidity in the C$269.6 billion ($197 billion as of June 30) portfolio.  "We have been quite proactive in terms of generating liquidity on the private asset side, and seen some good success there, particularly in the market," Stephen McLennan CIO-asset allocation, said in an interview. "We're in position now where we would like to deploy into attractive opportunities and continually assess what the right balance is between passive and active to generate active returns."  "We also want to spend a lot...