Fiera Capital Corp. is acquiring Foresters Life Insurance Co.’s asset management business in an effort to beef up its offering for institutional clients, according to Jean-Philippe Lemay, Fiera’s president and chief operating officer. Montreal-based Fiera will buy Foresters Asset Management Inc., Foresters’ Toronto-based investment management subsidiary that’s focused on institutional and insurance liability-driven investment. The terms […]
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is selling its stake in BluEarth Renewables Inc. to DIF Infrastructure V, a European independent infrastructure fund. The Ontario Teachers’ was a founding shareholder in BluEarth, an independent renewable power producer that builds, owns and operates solar, hydro and wind facilities in North America. Following the sale, DIF V will own […]
The Canada Pension Plan fund ended its fiscal year on March 31, 2019, with net assets of $392 billion, compared to $356.1 billion at the end of fiscal year 2018. The $35.9 billion increase was made up of $32 billion in net income and $3.9 billion in net CPP contributions. Overall, the fund’s return for the year […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and U.K.-based Lightsource BP are investing $260 million to finance a portfolio of solar assets owned and managed by Lightsource. The debt investment will be used to finance a portfolio composed of more than 100 solar projects across various countries, totalling more than 700 megawatts, with the potential to expand over […]
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board, alongside private equity firm Lightyear Capital, is selling Advisor Group Inc. to Reverence Capital Partners. After the transaction closes in the third quarter of 2019, both the PSP and Lightyear will continue to hold minority stakes. Since the PSP and Lightyear acquired Advisor Group from AIG Inc. in May 2016, client assets grew […]
While defined benefit plans are traditionally known for their paternalism, defined contribution pensions represent the next generation. Learning from their parents’ years of investment experience, DC plans are catching up, but hurdles still exist in the quest to invest like DB plans. The liquidity question As more DC plan sponsors consider adding illiquid alternatives to […]
Strong governance allowed the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan to find success in private markets, according to Julie Cays, the plan’s chief investment officer. Before the CAAT plan hired its first CIO in 2004, it was using an outsourced chief investment officer-type model — although it didn’t use this term at the […]
As allocations to alternative assets grow, private equity is the most popular, trailed closely by real estate according to data from Preqin for the first half of 2019. Currently 65 per cent of institutional investors hold private equity, 63 per cent own real estate and 51 per cent have hedge funds. Somewhat less popular are […]
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board are part of a group investing in a new US$350-million fund focused on artificial intelligence. Radical Ventures, the company launching the fund, is a venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs involved in technology aimed at developing AI products, or applying AI, to […]
Current economic factors like low bond yields, which make it quite difficult for pension plans to meet their long-term return requirements, are driving institutional investors to allocate more to alternatives, according to Jason Campbell, a principal at Eckler Ltd. “Growth in alternatives has been steady and quite significant,” he said during a Canadian Investment Review webinar on […]