Canadian pension fund sets up Hong Kong base for growth
Ontario institutional investor will use its new office in the city to build networks as it looks to nearly double its assets in the region
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, one of Canada's largest institutional investors, wants to nearly double its Asia-Pacific investments within three years by building relationships with people and companies in the region.
Known for generating superior long-term returns, OTPP, which has more than C$129.5 billion (HK$975 billion) in assets, hopes to make more deals in the region after opening a Hong Kong office yesterday, its second overseas office following one launched in London in 2007.
The pension fund's managers said it aimed to boost its assets in the Asia-Pacific region to about C$20 billion in three years from more than C$11 billion now.
"One of the hallmarks of our investment beliefs is partnership in various locales with people who are comfortable with the same beliefs," Jim Leech, OTPP's president and chief executive, told the South China Morning Post yesterday.
The best time to come to Asia was 30 years ago, and the next best time … is today
Unlike pension funds in the United States, which he said were often stuffed with politicians and union hacks, OTPP, which is one of the largest and most aggressive pension funds in North America, selects people with backgrounds in business and finance, sidestepping short-term goals and political influences.
Leech said the fund was looking "to build new relations with local expertise" and "from those relations come investments".