Pension Pulse

Kenneth Chan of the Daily Hive reports Vancouver's new tallest office tower, and Canada's greenest, officially opens: Construction officially reached completion on The Stack in late 2022, and an official opening celebration and ribbon cutting ceremony was held today. Located mid-block at 1133 Melville Street, just west of Thurlow Street within downtown Vancouver’s Central Business District, this is now Metro Vancouver’s tallest office building, with a height of 530 ft containing 37 storeys . The Stack is also one of the region’s single largest office buildings, carrying a total floor area of 550,000 sq ft of premium AAA-calibre office space. Ernst & Young (EY) is the building’s anchor tenant, with its corporate logo sign installed at the top of the tower to signify its major presence. Other tenants include BDC, Blakes, DLA Piper, Canacoord Genuit, Fluor, and Plenty of Fish. Most of the building’s leasing was secured over the past year, which provides an example ...

James Bradshaw of the Globe and Mail reports Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan chief investment officer to depart at the end of December: Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan chief investment officer Ziad Hindo is leaving the pension fund manager at the end of the year after five years in the role. Teachers’ named Stephen McLennan, an executive managing director in charge of the total fund management arm, as acting head of investments. That role is effective immediately, and starts a transition of responsibilities for leading the investment division from Mr. Hindo to Mr. McLennan. Mr. McLennan will assume leadership of all of Teachers’ investment activities. Mr. Hindo will formally step down Dec. 31 after 23 years at Teachers’. He took over as CIO in June, 2018, under previous chief executive Ron Mock. In the five years since then the fund posted net returns of 7 per cent with assets increasing from about $190-billion to $247-billion. Under his watch, Teachers’ also increased its ...

Palash Gosh of Pension & Investments reports CPPIB adds to private equity mandate with Northleaf Capital: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Toronto, committed an additional C$200 million ($147) million to the Canadian private equity market through an evergreen Canadian midmarket mandate managed by Northleaf Capital Partners. A CPPIB spokesperson said the name of the fund is Canadian Fund-of-Funds V and that as an evergreen mandate, it's an additional commitment to a customized mandate with the pension fund. Since the private equity investment partnership between CPPIB and Northleaf was established in 2006, Northleaf now manages a total of C$2.4 billion in Canadian private equity investments on behalf of CPPIB, a Sept. 14 news release said. Northleaf's mandate for CPPIB focuses on maximizing net returns through primary fund investments in small- and midmarket Canadian buyout and growth funds, secondary investments and direct co-investments, the news relea...

Eliyahu Kamisher, Nic Querolo, and Amanda Albright of Bloomberg report Calpers CIO Musicco to step down after less than two years: The California Public Employees ’ Retirement System said Chief Investment Officer Nicole Musicco will step down less than two years after she joined the largest US pension fund, sparking another round of turmoil in the high-profile public investing office. Musicco, 49, will leave her position at Calpers Sept. 29 to focus on her family in Canada, according to a statement on Friday from Calpers. She oversaw about 400 employees and managed an investment portfolio of about $500 billion. She joined Calpers early last year after a long search to replace Ben Meng, who abruptly departed in August 2020. Meng, who held the position for about 18 months, resigned amid allegations that he ran afoul of rules governing disclosure of personal investments, triggering an investigation by a state regulator. Musicco held the job for less time than it was vacant a...

Ana Pereira of the Globe and Mail reports Canada’s pension fund CEOs saw little change to 2022 compensation as investment returns fell: Chief executive officers at Canada’s largest pension funds saw their pay change marginally last year even though some of their public-market investments suffered losses owing to rising inflation and higher interest rates. The modest changes at most of the biggest pension funds are a result of compensation philosophies that emphasize long-term performance of the funds, which is typically measured over five-year horizons. Consequently, some funds did not meet their benchmark targets for fiscal 2022 but still increased the pay of their top executives, while others reported single-digit drops in compensation. Of the Maple Eight group of Canadian public pensions, seven break down their senior executive compensation policies in their annual reports, despite not being legally required to do so. Most disclose compensation for the CEO and three t...