Pension Pulse

Paul Lipscombe, DCD's Telecoms Editor, reports that Connexa agrees $700m deal to acquire 2degrees’ passive infrastructure: Spark New Zealand's independent tower unit Connexa has agreed a deal to acquire 2degrees’ passive infrastructure. The deal is worth NZ $1.1 billion ($701.6m) and covers infrastructure across the country. The deal sees Connexa scoop 1,124 towers from NZ telco 2degrees, with the seller entering a 20-year agreement with Connexa (plus rights of renewal) to secure access to existing and new towers. This transaction also includes a commitment to build and co-location 450 sites over the next decade. Connexa now operates as an independent unit from Spark NZ, after the operator sold a 70 percent stake in Spark’s passive mobile infrastructure assets to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in July 2022. The transaction was only finalized in October 2022 for NZ $900m ($573m) . In a statement Spark, NZ CEO Jolie Hodson said: “We believe that the addition of 2degr...

Chuck Mikolajczak reports Wall Street ends lower for third straight day as recession worries rise: U.S. stocks dropped for a third straight session and suffered a second straight week of losses on Friday as fears continued to mount that the Federal Reserve's campaign to arrest inflation would tilt the economy into a recession. Equities have been staggered since the U.S. central bank's decision to raise interest rates by 50 basis points (bps), as expected. But comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled more policy tightening, and the central bank projected that interest rates would top the 5% mark in 2023, a level not seen since 2007. Further comments from other Fed officials fueled the concern. New York Fed President John Williams said on Friday it remains possible the U.S. central bank will raise rates more than it expects next year. The policymaker added that he does not anticipate a recession due to the Fed's aggressive tightening. In addition, San Francisco...

CPP Investments posted President and CEO John Graham's end of calendar year letter where he shares why 21 million Canadians can take comfort knowing that CPP Investments is resilient and the foundation for their retirement is in good hands and why they remain cautiously optimistic about the year ahead: This has been a challenging year for many Canadians. The lingering global pandemic, prolonged war in Ukraine and other global conflicts, persistent inflation and the steady rise of interest rates continue to concern us all. At our recent public meetings held across the country and virtually, you told us how these issues and more were directly impacting your lives. We want to assure you that the Canada Pension Plan Fund is strong and the future value of your benefits remains solid. As one of the 10 largest and most enduring pension plans in the world, we are built to weather all types of economic and geopolitical pressures, just like the ones we face toda...