Florence Chong of IPE Real Assets reports ADQ buys 49% of infrastructure platform Plenary as CDPQ sells 20% stake ADQ, an Abu Dhabi state-owned investment company, has purchased a 49% stake in global public infrastructure group Plenary for an undisclosed price, believed to be around A$1bn (€609m). Canadian institutional investor CDPQ is selling its 20% stake. The remaining 29% interest in the Melbourne, Australia-based firm is held by Plenary founders and executives. As part of the partnership, Plenary and ADQ will establish a co-development and investment platform to focus on public and soc ..read more

Jordan Fleguel of BNN Bloomberg reports fight over where Canada's pension funds should invest is a 'clash of titans':  One of the main proponents of increased domestic investment from Canadian pension funds says there are two competing theories on the issue that each come to a different conclusion about what’s best for Canada’s pensioners and its economy. “It's a clash of titans, because we have two economic theories,” Daniel Brosseau, co-founder and partner at investment firm Letko Brosseau, told BNN Bloomberg in a Monday interview. Brosseau and his firm helped bring national attention ..read more

The Canadian Press reports AIMCo's balanced fund earned 8.0% in 2023, falls short of benchmark: Alberta Investment Management Corp. says its balanced fund earned a net return of 8.0 per cent for 2023, short of its benchmark return of 9.3 per cent. The investment manager says its public equity investments earned 15.8 per cent, while its fixed income holdings earned 7.7 per cent.  The firm's private equity portfolio generated a return of 6.7 per cent, while infrastructure investments earned 3.8 per cent and its renewable resources portfolio returned 1.6 per cent. AIMCo's real estate portf ..read more

Alex Harring and Yun Li of CNBC report Nasdaq falls more than 2% to post 6th straight losing day as Nvidia craters 10%: The Nasdaq Composite fell for a sixth straight session on Friday, notching its longest losing streak in more than a year. The downtrend comes as Nvidia dived, adding to recent market woes tied to geopolitical conflicts and sticky inflation. The tech-heavy Nasdaq pulled back 2.05% to 15,282.01, while the broad S&P 500 slipped 0.88% to 4,967.23 — below the 5,000 level. Both clinched their sixth straight negative days, streaks not seen for either since October 2022. The Do ..read more

Matthew Black of the Edmonton Journal reports hundreds turn out to discuss state of CPP, possible Alberta pension plan: Hundreds turned out Wednesday night to hear Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) officials discuss the state of the national retirement plan while acknowledging Alberta’s ongoing discussion about leaving it. The public meeting was one the CPPIB is required to hold in each province at least once every two years and came on the heels of a similar event in Calgary on Tuesday night.  Wednesday’s event had to be moved to a bigger venue, at a downtown hotel, wi ..read more

Benefits Canada reports Vestcor returns 7.5% for 2023, amid rising inflation, high interest rates: Vestcor Corp. is reporting a 7.5 per cent return for 2023, despite the challenges of rising inflation and high interest rates. The New Brunswick-based investment organization achieved five- and 10-year annualized returns of 6.27 per cent and 6.73 per cent, respectively. In a press release, Vestcor noted these returns ensure its clients continue meeting their funding objectives, even through the period of higher inflation indexing requirements of the past few years. “We are pleased that Vestco ..read more

Derek Decloet and Christine Dobby of Bloomberg report Canada taps ex-BOC governor to examine how pension funds invest: Canada’s finance minister has asked former central bank governor Stephen Poloz to examine ways to entice its pension funds to invest more in the country. Poloz will lead a “working group” that will look at what it will take to get Canadian pensions to put more of their capital into domestic opportunities — including housing development, venture capital and infrastructure such as airports, the government said in budget documents Tuesday. Large public pension managers includi ..read more

John Graham, President and CEO of CPP Investments wrote a comment on a national pension promise: We live in tumultuous times. Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, a global pandemic, and rapid technological change have all challenged us in ways we couldn’t have imagined five years ago. It can be easy to forget, given the speed of these disruptions, that one of our greatest challenges has been building slowly for generations. “Demography is destiny” is a phrase often used to draw a foreboding link between population dynamics and a nation’s fate. In periods of uncertainty, demographics can als ..read more

Hakyung Kim and Lisa Kailai Han of CNBC report Dow tumbles 475 points, S&P 500 suffers worst day since January as inflation woes erupt: Stocks sold off Friday as inflation and geopolitical worries once again dented investor sentiment on Wall Street. A broad decline in major bank shares also weighed on the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 475.84 points, or 1.24%, closing at 37,983.24. The S&P 500 tumbled 1.46% at 5,123.41. The Nasdaq Composite pulled back by 1.62% at 16,175.09. At one point in the trading session, the Dow was down by nearly 582 points, or 1.51%. The S& ..read more

Today, CDPQ published its Sustainable Investing Report for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023: CDPQ actively contributes to advancing sustainable finance, and once again this year the report presents concrete actions taken to drive the organization’s impact. Following are some highlights. Environment  CDPQ is well on track to achieve the targets underpinning the climate strategy it adopted in 2021, including its goal of reaching a net-zero portfolio by 2050 with: $53 billion in low-carbon assets, including $15 billion in Québec, representing an over ..read more