Pension Pulse

CDPQ issued a press release last week stating Redaptive secures $650M credit facility from it and Nuveen to expand Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) platform: Redaptive , a leading Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) provider, today announced the successful closing of a $650 million (CAD 903 million) credit facility from CDPQ, a global investment group, and Nuveen, the investment manager of TIAA. This facility strengthens Redaptive’s ability to scale its innovative platform, meet accelerating customer demand, and deliver measurable business value through energy efficiency, renewable generation, and data-driven building performance. Redaptive can now expand its investment in physical asset infrastructure across large enterprise portfolios, enabling customers to reduce operating costs, enhance resilience, and meet long-term business growth and sustainability goals—all without the end users’ upfront capital or added operational complexity. Redap...

Pia Singh and Brian Evans report Dow drops more than 100 points Friday as investors await U.S.-China trade talks: The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped on Friday as investors awaited much-anticipated trade talks between U.S. and Chinese officials this weekend. The 30-stock Dow lost 119.07 points, or 0.29%, and settled at 41,249.38. The S&P 500 inched down 0.07%, closing at 5,659.91. The Nasdaq Composite ended the session little changed, ending at 17,928.92. The talks with Chinese officials follow the U.S. and United Kingdom reaching a preliminary trade deal. Investors hope this will lead to more agreements being reached quickly. That said, a 10% tariff rate on the U.K. appears to be the baseline for the globe. “Many Trade Deals in the hopper, all good (GREAT!) ones!,” said Trump on Truth Social, a day after announcing a preliminary trade agreement with the U.K., which marked the first deal between the U.S. and a global trading partner since Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff ...

Sammy Hudes of the Canadian Press reports BCE cuts quarterly dividend, signs fiber deal with PSP Investments: BCE Inc. cut its quarterly dividend payment to shareholders and announced a partnership deal with the Public Sector Pension Investment Board to help accelerate the development of fibre infrastructure in the U.S. BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said Thursday the dividend cut comes as the company faces intense price competition against a backdrop of macroeconomic and geopolitical instability. The company said it will now pay a quarterly dividend of 43.75 cents per share, down from 99.75 cents per share. The decision cuts BCE’s annualized dividend to $1.75 per common share from $3.99. “As we debated this, deliberated at the board, certainly having taken and having listened to the perspectives of investors over the last few months, we decided that resetting the dividend ... was the most responsible way to address our capital allocation strategy,” Bibic said in an inte...

Nina Kienle and Adria Calatayud of the Wall Street Journal report Veolia to Buy CDPQ's Stake in Water Technologies and Solutions for $1.75 Billion: Veolia said it agreed to buy Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec's minority stake in its Water Technologies and Solutions subsidiary for $1.75 billion, taking full ownership. The French utility and resource-management company said Wednesday that the acquisition of the investment group's 30% stake will allow it to achieve cost savings and accelerate earnings growth at the business. It now aims to achieve an annual growth rate in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of at least 10% for its water-technologies division over the 2023-27 period, it said. The business generated an Ebitda of 612 million euros ($695.8 million) in 2024 with an organic growth rate of 16%. Sales in the first quarter of 2025 were stable on year. The deal, due to be completed by the end of June, is expected to lead t...

Harrisson Connery of PERE reports that Ares’ Arougheti sees tariffs will boost real estate values, transaction activity: As tariff-related uncertainty casts a shadow over global property markets, Ares Management chief executive Michael Arougheti said his firm’s real estate strategies stand to benefit from the disruption.   “We continue to believe that this is an opportune time for continued growth in our real estate business,” said Arougheti on the Los Angeles-based manager’s first-quarter earnings call this week. “Tariffs should drive up construction costs, which might constrain supply in markets that are already supply-constrained. This, coupled with a decrease in cost of capital and lower interest rates should improve values of real estate held and spur transaction activity.”     Arougheti’s comments came as Ares reported $3.9 billion in fundraising for its real estate strategies in the quarter, up from just $400 million for the same period last year.   ...

CDPQ's Executive Vice-President and Head of CDPQ Global and Global Head of Sustainability, Marc-André Blanchard, received the 2025 Testimonial Dinner Award on April 24 in Toronto.  In his acceptance speech, Mr. Blanchard reflected on the urgent need for engagement, trust and partnership in solving the most pressing challenges of our time. The former diplomat shared insights from his time at the United Nations, and called for public institutions to refocus on results, for silos to be broken across sectors and for trust to be rebuilt — drop by drop — through collaboration and engaged action: I want to begin with just one word — gratitude, but gratitude in three parts. First, the five distinguished Canadians with whom I have the privilege of being honored tonight, they each inspire me. Anil Arora. Anil is a legend amongst the global statistician community, I saw it with my own eyes at the UN. The honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, a life dedicated to building and streng...