iStock / Photoman CI Financial Corp. experienced redemptions of $1.3 billion in its Canadian retail asset management business in the first quarter, due primarily to outflows from balanced funds and cash-like products, the Toronto-based firm reported in its first quarter earnings release on Friday. The outflows compared to $397 million in redemptions in the fourth quarter, and $841 million in net inflows in the first quarter of 2023. In a conference call, CI Financial CEO Kurt MacAlpine ascribed the outflows to the fact that 40% of CI’s retail assets were in balanced products, the category w ..read more

iStock / Ronstik Steve Hawkins has hired the co-founder of the firm he purchased last month and renamed, LongPoint Asset Management Inc., as his chief operating officer. “We’re going to do some creative, interesting things, and I think many Canadians will appreciate what we come to market with,” said Myron Genyk, chief operating officer of LongPoint. Genyk started Toronto-based Evermore Capital Inc. in June 2021. The firm launched Canada’s first target-date retirement ETFs in February 2022, but terminated them a year later due to an unfavourable economy, poor overall market performance and ..read more

iStock / ValeryBrozhinsky Each week, Investment Executive summarizes notable moves across the financial industry. Julie Martini, former chief operating officer with Advocis, was appointed vice-president of public affairs with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce effective April 24, a release said. In the role, she’ll advocate for Ontario’s business community and drive policy decisions, the release said. In March, Martini filed a claim against Advocis for constructive and wrongful dismissal, after the association told her in January she’d be laid off for up to 35 weeks. In an email on ..read more

iA Financial’s first-quarter earnings fell slightly year over year. The Quebec City-based company reported net earnings attributed to common shareholders of $233 million in the first quarter of 2024, down from $270 million in the same quarter last year. Segregated funds gross sales were just under $1.3 billion for the quarter, up 24% year over year, with net sales of $557 million. However, mutual funds experienced a net outflow of $143 million, which the company attributed to industry-wide challenges. Individual insurance sales totalled $89 million in Canada, similar to the first quarter of ..read more

iStock / Hadimor Sun Life Financial Inc. reported net income of $875 million in its first quarter, a 2% decline from the same quarter last year. The insurer said profits were affected by its U.S. health division, including from reassessments following changed Medicaid determinations primarily reflecting higher morbidity claims. The U.S. division saw a 20% drop in underlying net income to US$141 million. The Canadian division was down about 2% to a net income of $310 million, as increased death payouts offset gains in business growth. Sun Life had $1.47 trillion in assets under manageme ..read more

iStock / PeopleImages Canadian employers added 90,000 jobs in April, far surpassing forecasters’ expectations and marking the largest employment gain in more than a year. Statistics Canada released its labour force survey on Friday, which says the jobless rate held steady at 6.1% last month. The agency says the April employment gains were driven by part-time work. “Today’s showy headline jobs increase will give the Bank of Canada some pause, since it reinforces the point that the economy is clearly not rolling over,” wrote BMO chief economist Douglas Porter in a client note. The April emplo ..read more

AdobeStock / Leonid Andronov The British economy bounced back strongly in the first three months of the year, bringing to an end to what economists termed a “technical recession”, official figures showed Friday. The Office for National Statistics said the economy grew by 0.6% in the first quarter from the previous three-month period, with broad-based strength across the crucial services sector in particular. The increase was higher than the 0.4% predicted by economists and the strongest since the fourth quarter of 2021 when the economy was rebounding following the sharp contraction during t ..read more

AdobeStock / Rawf8 Canada would be one of the main casualties of a U.S.-led trade war that weighs on global economic output, Fitch Ratings says. And the risk of such a trade war is on the rise. “Aggressive tariff rises under a possible second Donald Trump presidency would likely result in a reduction in U.S. and global output,” Fitch said in a report. Trump has threatened a 10% increase in tariffs across the board, with a 60% increase on imports from China. A unilateral increase in U.S. tariffs would reduce global GDP by 0.4%–0.8%, Fitch estimated. If U.S. trading partners retaliate, Fitch ..read more

AdobeStock / Oleksii Companies in Quebec continued raising more money in the exempt market than in public markets last year, according to the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). In a report detailing the work of its corporate finance branch in the past year, the AMF said prospectus-based financings by companies in Quebec dropped by 32% last year. This came amid an 8% drop in prospectus filings across Canada. The value of equity capital raised in the public markets by Quebec-based companies dropped even more sharply to $400 million from the $1.6 billion raised in 2022. “This decline is in ..read more

AdobeStock / Ronstik Deal activity in the global private equity market surged in April, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The value of deal-making totalled $65.1 billion (all figures in U.S. dollars) last month, S&P reported. That’s up 64.6% from the same month last year, even as the number of deals was down by about 5.6%. Through the first four months of the year, total deal value reached $190.0 billion, up from $168.7 billion for the same period in 2023, S&P said. In April, the U.S. and Canada accounted for the largest share of deal activity, with $47.7 billion wort ..read more