Pension Pulse

Barbara Shecter of the National Post reports  OMERS squeezes out 2.2% return in 'challenging' first half: The Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System generated a 2.2 per cent investment return in the first half of 2025 while facing down a “challenging environment for investors” amid global economic uncertainty and exposure to the United States . The pension manager’s $3.1-billion gain for the period of Jan. 1 to June 30 pushed its net assets to $140.7 billion.   More than half of the fund’s assets, 55 per cent, are in the U.S., where the Donald Trump administration has destabilized global trade with a series of punitive tariffs . “OMERS had a positive start in what was a particularly challenging environment for investors,” chief executive Blake Hutcheson said. “As we manage through the current short-term challenges, in both public and private investing businesses, this team continues to unlock opportunities that deliver both immediate and long-term value.” OME...

On July 23, 2025, IMCO's Jennifer Hartviksen, Managing Director and Head of Global Credit, joined ION Analytics for a fireside chat on shifts in the credit market. She discussed structural changes in lending, outlined key risks and opportunities and emphasized the importance of culture in IMCO’s partner selection process.  This is a great discussion which I embedded below. Jennifer goes over her background , working in Brazil, learning about credit investments there ("glass is half full" philosophy) then worked in Los Angleles before coming back to Canada to work at pension funds, Invesco and joining IMCO two months before the pandemic hit back in 2020 ( Christian Hensley   hired her, he is no longer with the organization). What attracted her to IMCO was the opportunity to build a credit strategy from scratch which "encompasses everything from philosophy, process and people." Jennifer explains how in credit, the questions are always the same an...

Earlier today, BCI announced that along with BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group, it has formed a US$700 million timberland investment platform in partnership with Klabin: Large scale partnership advancing long term timberland stewardship and marking one of the largest timberland transactions ever in Latin America São Paulo, Brazil – 19 August 2025 — The BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group  (BTG Pactual TIG), one of the world’s largest timberland investment managers, has announced the formation of a large, consolidated timberland platform in southern Brazil. The transaction will significantly expand BTG Pactual TIG’s presence in the state of Paraná, where it has operated since 2017. The ~US$ 700 million investment comprises ~100,000 gross hectares of sustainably managed mature timberland assets, consisting primarily of pine and eucalyptus forests. The transaction was structured in partnership with Klabin S.A. (Klabin), Brazil’s largest producer and exporter of...

Mona Dohle of Net Zero Investor reports  UPP’s Barbara Zvan on the shift to inflation-proof and climate assets: UPP is now fully funded just four years after launch, CEO Barbara Zvan discusses the fund’s shift to inflation-protected assets, its C$1.2bn commitment to climate solutions, and the challenge of decarbonising private markets. UPP is a relative newcomer in the Canadian pension landscape. The C$12.8bn plan, which serves more than 40,000 members across five Ontario universities and 14 sector organisations, was launched in 2021 amid a challenging backdrop for single-sponsor DB plans in a low-interest-rate environment. Employee groups and university administrations, with backing from the provincial government, opted to merge their separate DB plans into one multi-university jointly sponsored pension plan (JSPP), which recently celebrated its fourth anniversary. Since then, conditions have improved considerably, with rising gilt yields boosting DB funding levels gl...

Brian Swint of Barron's reports  Buffett's stock buys say plenty about the stock market but his inaction says more: Sometimes what you don’t do speaks louder than what you do. With a net worth of about $140 billion, there’s a reason Warren Buffett is considered the ultimate investment guru by so many. As he prepares to step away from his CEO role at Berkshire Hathaway  by the end of the year, his followers are running out of time to imitate his moves. The latest Berkshire trades reveal the house is still on the lookout for cheap shares. It bought a stake in UnitedHealth , the insurer that has dropped 50% over the past 12 months, probably because it sees the selloff as overdone. And for what it’s worth, David Tepper’s Appaloosa also bought UNH stock in the second quarter. So did Michael Burry, the investor who famously made billions in the 2008-09 financial crisis as dramatized in the movie “The Big Short.” Given the stock’s continued declines before Friday, they may ha...