AIMCo

“Often, pension plans have ended up in the so-called no regrets, fifty-fifty hedge half approach, which really doesn't make sense.”

“We don't have much of a home bias anymore in the large Canadian pension plans. Canada is, call it, three point something percent of GDP globally, and our portfolios now are closer to reflecting that in our return-seeking assets.”

“And being careful about gaining exposure to certain higher risk markets indirectly through jurisdictions where the rule of law is strong and perhaps where the companies that we're investing in may be exporters to regions that are a little more challenging to i…”

“In terms of the markets themselves, I'm worrying about the risk that the policymakers don't get this right, and that we end up in a stagflationary environment. That's a serious risk. And it's very difficult to steer a portfolio to be really resilient against t…”

“We have the flexibility to take on assets that may have a carbon footprint that today doesn't look great in order to be strong stewards of capital to ensure that technology is applied appropriately in those areas to take them from gray to greener.”

“The fundamental piece of assessing external managers is as much the talent and alignment of interest and how they manage talent as it is about the actual strategies and investment process.”

“We still work with partners, but we also expect something like a four to one ratio of direct investment opportunities. For every dollar that we're putting with a partner.”

“We don't have much activity in venture capital. That area has just not been a focus for ANCO in a big way, and our scale is not sufficiently large that we really need to reach into that space at this time.”

“We don't mind paying performance fees. We like them better than fixed fees. So that alignment of interest is a powerful tool for us with our external managers.”

“I would say the pension space doesn't quite pay at the same level as some of those areas, but it's not too far off.”

“In the public markets, primarily internally managed, but in our equity book, for example, we've recently taken an approach of being clearer about the strategies that we have in place for our clients that are separating out alpha and beta more clearly. So we ha…”

“In private debt and loan, we have a strategy to grow, and that's really the impetus behind our New York office. Is expanding our investments in private debt and loan and increasing the proportion of direct investment there.”

“And in private equity, we're mostly funds and some co-investment.”

“Of the private asset classes, infrastructure is the most global and has a very high proportion of direct investments.”

“So, for example, in Singapore, we've got a new head of Singapore starting in a couple of weeks who's coming to us from GIC”

“Coming up through the fixed income side is interesting because it combines the macro view where it's all the macro forces that influence interest rates with the credit view where it's very micro forces that influence credit quality. It's where macro and micro …”

“I went from having 45 or so investment professionals at CN to now I have about 175, and we're located across the globe. We have offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, and London, and we're opening offices in New York and Singapore.”

“And at AIMCO, we don't control the strategic asset mix decision. We are not one pool of capital, like Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and others here in Canada. We are more like BCI in British Columbia and the Caisse de Dépoux in Quebec, where we have multiple c…”

“Well, pension plan, whether it's three billion or twenty billion or one hundred and sixty billion, where I am today, the principles of asset liability management for the pension plan clients here at AIMCO, they're all the same.”