The Desjardins Group is set to acquire Montreal-based investment firm Hexavest Inc. The deal is expected to close on Sept. 1, 2021, subject to certain conditions. Hexavest, which is based in Montreal, manages $5 billion in assets. The majority of its approximately 50 clients are institutional investors from Canada, the U.S., Australia and Asia. In […]
As the era of cap rate compression draws to a close, how can institutional investors maintain the outsized returns they’ve enjoyed for over a decade? Over the past 15 years, the growing popularity of real estate in institutional investment portfolios has increased against the backdrop of a sustained decline in yields, called cap rate compression. […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is one of two organizations investing a total US$940 million in Phoenix Tower International, a U.S.-based wireless communications infrastructure provider. The investment will fund the company’s expansion in Europe as well as further growth in new and existing markets. The other investor is AMP Capital, an Australia-based […]
With the global psychedelic drugs market projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.36 per cent between 2021 and 2027 to a value of US$10.75 billion in 2027 and the world’s first psychedelic exchange-traded fund launched in Canada at the start of the year, should institutional investors be taking notice? Read: Is it […]
Employees at two Canadian pension plans are being recognized for their responsible investment achievements. The British High Commission and the Canada Climate Law Initiative named Barbara Zvan, inaugural president and chief executive officer of the University Pension Plan, and Kim Thomassin, executive vice-president and head of investments in Quebec and stewardship investing at the Caisse […]
It’s likely that investors seeking the potential higher returns and the lower downside risks of private equity in their diversified portfolios already know that, historically, private equity has outperformed stock market indices by two-to-three per cent per year. They might also know that, from 2007-2020, the S&P 500 was up 9.5 per cent per year […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is among the investors committing more than $600 million to eStruxture Data Centers Inc., a data centre provider in Montreal. The investment will fund eStruxture’s acquisition of data centre provider Aptum Technologies and additional capital expansion projects in Canada, according to a press release. The other investors […]
It isn’t just asset managers who are increasingly embracing the integration of environmental, social and governance factors into investment decision-making. An important contributor to “record inflows” into sustainable investing strategies over the past 12 to 18 months is demand from plan members, as well as individual retail investors, says Eric Monteiro, senior vice-president, group retirement […]
Coinbase made a rousing debut on Wall Street last week, with shares of the digital currency exchange rising as high as US$429, briefly giving it a market value over $100 billion. Coinbase Global Inc.’s initial public offering happened with cryptocurrency chatter seemingly everywhere, even at the U.S. Federal Reserve. Digital currencies are being incorporated into business plans […]
As interest rates return to pre-pandemic levels, fixed income is returning to its role as an equities hedge, according to a webinar on Wednesday hosted by AllianceBernstein Canada Inc. “As we see rates rise back to where they were at the end of 2019, there’s gas in the tank for fixed income to play that […]