Ontario Teachers' to ramp up private equity

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is contemplating opening a regional office in Hong Kong next year to cover Asia. “Given, the global nature of our business and the increasing importance of the Asian region to our fund, it is logical that we have a location there,” said Jim Leech, the pension plan’s chief executive, on Thursday. The office, which is “in the preliminary planning stages,” would be staffed by local and Canadian equities staff from the fund’s private capital and public equities departments.

Less than a dozen years back, pension funds weren’t in the habit of raising long-term capital by issuing bonds on a private placement basis.

TORONTO – There could be some relief on the horizon for Canadian pensions with solvency positions improving “sharply” in the first quarter of this year due to a strong equity market performance and an uptick in long-term interest rates, according to a report released Tuesday by pension consultant Mercer LLC. In addition, “plan sponsors have been making contributions to fund the deficits,” said Manuel Monteiro, a partner in Mercer’s financial strategy group.

MONTREAL – The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has plowed $8.3-billion on new investments in its home province since 2009, part of its strategy to bet money on assets it knows best while stoking economic growth. Now its real estate arm is getting into the nation-building game.

The deal that gave BCE Inc. control of Canada's largest private broadcasting network was over two years in the making. The sale was driven by Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, one of the country’s largest money managers, has applied to intervene in the Supreme Court of Canada case that will determine whether Canada is able to create a national stock market watchdog

The private equity arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has joined forces with Thoma Bravo, a U.S. based fund that focuses on buyouts of software firms to snap up SonicWall, an IT security company

TORONTO — Jim Leech, the chief executive of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, is stepping down at the end of the year. Mr. Leech said Tuesday morning that he has informed the board of Canada’s largest single-profession pension plan about his planned retirement on Dec. 31, and a search is being conducted for his replacement. “They’ve been running a very intensive process, looking externally and internally,” said Mr. Leech, who became CEO in December of 2007 and turns 66 in June.