Pension CEOs at home and abroad hail summit as positive starting point

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She said the U.S. is a very good market for her fund and will remain so, but she is increasingly looking at Canada as distinct from its southern neighbour.

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“We are diversifying. We always have been diversifying globally (but) maybe have seen North America as one market, and I think that’s changing,” she said. “So it’s now Canada and U.S, and the risks are different in the U.S. Having heard today what Canada can deliver or may deliver, I think then it will add up to better opportunities.”

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Mosman said she already has ties with Canada’s business community through the Hydro One investment and with Canada’s pension executives who, she said, share a similar culture with the Dutch fund. They have already worked together outside Canada. In 2020, for example, APG and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board participated in a $1-billion joint venture with ESR Cayman Ltd. to invest in and develop an industrial and warehouse logistics portfolio in Korea.

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Recent pledges by Canadian pension funds to bump up their investments in Canada could provide further co-investing opportunities for her fund in this country, she said.

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“We do that already, but more abroad in other countries,” she said.

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The summit also provided a deeper opportunity to meet with provincial premiers and learn about additional projects within their jurisdictions, Mosman said.

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John Graham, chief executive of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, one of the co-hosts of the summit, said that is exactly what the gathering, organized by the federal government alongside CPP Investments and PSP was meant to achieve.

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“This is not like a trade fair where people are going to go and buy tires or something,” he said “These are big, complicated transactions…. This is about long-term investing, getting the right capital into the country.”

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He said the summit was also a showcase for many Canadian corporations, including energy and mining firms, which could benefit from exposure to global investors.

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“From an investor perspective … sometimes the easiest way to invest in a country is through the public markets,” he said.

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“They can buy their shares, they could buy their debt, and then if you have companies that are very capex intensive, they can help support that through various means, through debt, equity, or some other form of capital.”

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“We’ve been investing in infrastructure for almost 20 years around the world. These are big, complicated investments,” he said, adding that there is often a government component to contend with as well.

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“You have to do it right, and you ultimately have to land on something that’s win-win for everybody.”

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On Tuesday, CPP Investments and Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. announced a $50-billion Maple Fund to make large-scale investments in critical infrastructure and strategic industries across Canada over the next five years.

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Graham said although it was announced on the final day of the two-day summit, it has been in the works much longer.

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“We’ve been working on opportunities with them, and we had this idea quite a while ago, long before the summit,” he said. “It gives us access to a best-in-class partner, and, for Brookfield, it gives them opportunity to basically raise funds … or to use the funds they have.”

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The Maple Fund will target project values of greater than $5 billion in equity capital, and was designed to allow other investors to partner with the pair on individual investments to further expand the capital available.