Pension Pulse

Yun Li and Jesse Pound of CNBC report S&P 500 closes at a record, Dow jumps 450 points as stocks rally in the final minutes of trading: U.S. stocks climbed on Friday, finishing the volatile week on a high note as stocks benefiting from a successful economic reopening outperformed again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 453.40 points higher, or 1.4%, to 33,072.88. The blue-chip benchmark was up only 65 points earlier in the day. The S&P 500 rose 1.7% to 3,974.54, hitting a record closing high and bringing its 2021 gains to 5.8%. The Nasdaq Composite erased a 0.8% loss and ended the session 1.2% higher to 13,138.72. All three major benchmarks rallied to their session highs into the close with the Dow jumping tacking on more than 150 points in the final 8 minutes of trading. It was broad-based late buying. Beaten-up tech like Apple rallied into the green in the final minutes. Banks, energy and materials were all big winners in the final minutes and on the day. ...

Andrew Willis of the Globe and Mail reports , meet John Graham, the pickleball player running the CPPIB: In his first interview since becoming CEO, John Graham opens up about growth plans, strategy and pickleball. On Friday nights, you’ll find John Graham and his wife playing pickleball near their home in Oakville. The newly named chief executive at one of the world’s largest asset managers, the $476-billion Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, took up the outdoor game – a hybrid of badminton and Ping-Pong – during the pandemic to stay nimble. In his first interview since becoming CEO, the 49year-old opened up on his plans for a fund responsible for 20 million Canadians’ retirement savings. It’s clear the new boss will push an 1,800-employee organization to be as light on its feet as he aspires to be on a pickleball court. The CPPIB handed Mr. Graham the top job unexpectedly in late February. His predecessor, Mark Machin, resigned when the fund manager learned he receiv...

Neil Weinberg of Bloomberg reports on how a secret CalPERS meeting on the exit of former CIO Ben Meng has sparked a legal fight: A confidential Calpers board meeting on chief investment officer Ben Meng’s abrupt departure is the subject of an intensifying legal fight between the nation’s largest public pension fund and a former director. Joseph John “J.J.” Jelincic sued the California Public Employees’ Retirement System earlier this month for transcripts and minutes of what he said was an improperly closed meeting held soon after Meng’s Aug. 5 resignation in the face of an alleged conflict of interest involving a Blackstone Group Inc. investment. Jelincic, a former investment officer who retired in 2019, served on the Calpers board from 2010 to 2018. Though Calpers has not yet responded to the suit in court, a lawyer for the pension fund sent Jelincic a March 17 letter urging him to immediately withdraw his complaint “to mitigate the potential harm” done by him and an unna...

CDPQ and OTPP put out a press release today stating Constellation Insurance Holdings announces it has entered into an agreement to acquire Ohio National: The platform, backed by founding investors CDPQ and Ontario Teachers’, will continue to seek out high-quality acquisitions , demutualizations and other opportunities in the property and casualty (P&C) and life insurance   sector. Constellation Insurance Holdings, Inc. (Constellation), backed by institutional investors Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’), announced today it has entered into an agreement for its inaugural transaction through the acquisition of Cincinnati-based Ohio National Mutual Holdings, Inc. (ONMH) and its wholly owned subsidiary Ohio National Financial Services, Inc. (collectively, Ohio National) for a total consideration of US$1 ...

Barbara Shecter of the Financial Post reports on AIMCo's next move: As Alberta contemplates CPP exit, investment manager focuses on rebuilding trust:  As the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic sent markets crashing last March, board members of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation realized they had a problem on their hands. A Crown corporation that manages nearly $120 billion in assets for pension, endowment and government funds, AIMCo had been pursuing a derivative strategy known as VOLTS that aimed to earn premiums from bets on volatility across multiple global equity markets. It was one of dozens of “value-added” strategies managed internally by AIMCo’s public equities team, but when markets went haywire with a level of volatility last seen on 1987’s Black Monday, the risky strategy quickly magnified losses. The board approved a decision to wind down the trades and lock in a $2.1-billion loss to avoid further carnage. It was an embarrassing failure of...