The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Board, Toronto, will implement an increase in its infrastructure, real estate and private equity allocations, to 35% of total assets, from 20%, said Debbie Oakley, senior vice president for the C$32.7 billion ($24.5 billion) pension plan. The money, which will include new global infrastructure and global private equity mandates, will be managed by three new wholly owned investment managers. The policy move was approved as the result of an asset allocation study conducted last year in an attempt to insulate the fund from market shifts.
The existing C$1 billion infrastructure portfolio will be managed by Borealis Infrastructure Corp. Borealis was renamed after OMERS bought out the other owners, bringing it back in-house. OMERS spun Borealis off three years ago; the firm managed about C$9 billion of the pension fund's assets. The C$7.7 billion real estate portfolio will be managed by Oxford Properties Group, and the C$1 billion private equity portfolio will be managed by OMERS Merchant Banking Group. OMERS funded both firms as a result of its new investment policy.
