Investors breathed a sigh of relief as they turned over their calendars at the end of 2020. Few were sorry to see the back of a turbulent year that drove nation after nation to their worst economic contractions in generations: over the course of 2020, the U.S. gross domestic product shrank around 3.5 per cent, […]
A defined benefit pension plan leader rarely gets to work with a “blank canvas,” but Chuck Bruce has taken that unique opportunity and drawn a new way forward for more than 56,000 DB plan members in Newfoundland and Labrador. In late 2014, the province and its five largest unions established Provident10 to administer and oversee […]
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 […]
The Alberta Investment Management Corp. is reporting a total fund return of 2.5 per cent net of all fees for 2020, approximately 5.4 per cent below that of its benchmark. The total represents approximately $3 billion in net investment income, with assets under management reaching $118.6 billion, according to a press release, which noted the […]
Coronavirus vaccinations and the US$1.9-trillion fiscal stimulus package are paving the way for the U.S. economy to recover as the world enters the second year of the coronavirus pandemic, in turn driving investor demand for equities and risk assets, according to a recent webinar hosted by Natixis Investment Managers. Esty Dwek, global market strategist at […]
The funding status and confidence of Canadian defined benefit pension plans declined in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic and a low interest-rate environment, according to a new survey from RBC Investor & Treasury Services. It found among 122 respondents, 50 per cent reported their plans were fully funded on a going-concern basis, down significantly from […]
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is acquiring a 40 per cent stake in Caruna, Finland’s largest electricity supplier. The pension will acquire a 20 per cent stake in the utility from First Sentier Investors and in a separate transaction, the Ontario Teachers’ and investment firm KKR & Co. Inc. will jointly acquire a 40 per cent holding […]
Canada’s largest pension plans are reporting mixed financial results from a year marked by the coronavirus pandemic. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec reported a 7.7 per cent return on its depositors’ funds in 2020, representing $24.8 billion in investment results. As at Dec. 31, 2020, the Caisse’s net assets totalled $365.5 billion, up […]
Canadian pension funds are seeing significant cost savings from in-house asset management but are still relying on external managers, according to a new survey from CIBC Mellon. It found among funds that have taken asset management in-house, 66 per cent said they achieved savings. Of those, 91 per cent reported more than 10 per cent […]
The market value of assets held by Canadian employer pension plans increased to $2.12 trillion in the third quarter of 2020, according to a new report by Statistics Canada. It found while private sector assets saw a year-over-year increase of 4.6 per cent to $654.3 billion, public sector assets nearly reached $1.47 trillion. Stocks posted the largest increase at […]