Air Canada unit sets radar to find external clients

The investment team for Air Canada's C$21 billion ($15.9 billion) portfolio have taken a novel approach to remain in growth mode as the pension plans continue to derisk.

The 65-person team, formerly known as Air Canada Pension Investments, now manages money under a new entity, Trans-Canada Capital Inc., according to Vincent Morin, president of Montreal-based TCC. The firm operates as an investment manager, allowing the team to manage external clients' assets.

The team is half composed of investment staff, which internally manage about 80% of Air Canada's portfolio, with the other half including individuals in operations, accounting and other roles, Mr. Morin said. All ACPI team members transferred to TCC on Jan. 1, he added.

The launch of TCC comes as Air Canada seeks regulatory approval to form its own life insurance company, which would position the team to also manage insurance assets as Air Canada looks to buy annuities to offload pension liabilities.

Air Canada aims to annuitize about C$10 billion of its total portfolio, Mr. Morin confirmed. Buying annuities from a new Air Canada insurance company would essentially transfer assets and liabilities to one entity from another but would allow TCC to retain the assets under management, Mr. Morin said.

TCC is currently focused on managing Air Canada's pension assets as well as the assets of other institutional investors. But in the future, the money manager might offer its services to retail clients "when the time is right," Mr. Morin said.

Air Canada administers eight defined benefit plans that are all closed to new entrants, excluding three plans that are offered as a "hybrid structure combining a DB and DC component," Mr. Morin said.

Air Canada's request to create a life insurance company is still under review by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, though the company hopes for approval in the next few months, he said.

In August 2018, Air Canada announced it would create a life insurance company, noting that the large size of the pension fund "dwarfs the ability of the Canadian annuity market to absorb such a large investment and the associated risk," Christopher Hiscock, chairman of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Air Canada pension committee, wrote in a memo to IAMAW union members at the time.

Benoit Labrosse, a Montreal-based partner and vice president at Morneau Shepell's asset and risk management consulting practice, said that in 2019, insurers' appetite for such annuity purchase deals in Canada was about C$5 billion.

"If they wanted to offload to an insurer, there is not enough demand among insurers to take on these liabilities that Air Canada has. They are in the process of creating this insurance company to do it themselves," Mr. Labrosse said. Air Canada's pension plan had about C$21 billion in assets as of Sept 30.

Prior to 2012, annuity purchases were a C$1 billion market in Canada, and have since grown to $C5 billion, "which is quite amazing growth," though it will still take time until insurers are able to deploy capital to handle a transaction to meet Air Canada's needs, Mr. Labrosse said in a follow-up email.

"The largest transaction to be handed to a single insurer is approximately C$550 million. The largest single-day transaction is close to C$900 million spread among multiple insurers. We are still far from the volume required to absorb Air Canada. Again, it's a question of prudently deploying capital for Canadian insurers," he said.

Now that Air Canada's pension investment team is operating under a separate entity, TCC staff will be able to manage insurance assets as well as other non-traditional investments by opening their investment management services to external clients, Mr. Morin said.

"We wanted to look at ways to continue our growth," he added.

Air Canada's pension fund now has a C$2 billion-plus surplus on a solvency basis — a major turnaround from the $2.6 billion deficit it faced when Mr. Morin joined the investment team in 2009.

As for its headcount, TCC is also aiming for growth in a "controlled" fashion, according to Mr. Morin. "We are slowly growing the team as the needs appear. We've been (hiring) in 2019 and have continued to grow our team to serve our clients and future clients," he said.

With a portfolio increasingly moving to bonds, leadership for the Air Canada plan would have been challenged to attract and retain the best talent, Morneau Shepell's Mr. Labrosse said. "If you have a group of people managing a portfolio that will slowly become a fixed-income portfolio over time, then your talent will most likely be seeking a place where there is a better opportunity."

As of Sept. 30, 85% of Air Canada's portfolio was invested in bonds, 20% in alternatives, 10% in equities and 10% in a portable alpha or hedge fund program, according to Mr. Morin, who noted the allocation totals 125% due to the fund using leverage.

Air Canada's decision to retool its internal pension investment team into a money management firm is a rare move, but one that has occurred before at another airline.

Founded in 1986, American Beacon Advisors Inc., Irving, Texas, manages the retirement fund assets of American Airlines. The company was launched as an asset management subsidiary of AMR Corp., then parent company of American Airlines, but was sold in 2008, with AMR retaining a 10% equity stake in the firm and later selling the remaining stake.

As of Dec. 31, 2018, American Beacon Advisors managed approximately $10.5 billion in defined benefit and other health and welfare plan assets for American Airlines, as well as "certain underlying investment options" in American Airline's 401(k) plan, a spokesman for American Beacon Advisors said.

At TCC, the firm offers four investment strategies to external clients: a multistrategy hedge fund — available to global institutional investors, including pension funds, endowments, foundations and family offices — as well as two fixed-income strategies and a hedge fund of funds available to Canadian institutional clients, Mr. Morin said.

So far, TCC has one Canadian institution invested in its flagship internally managed multistrategy hedge fund, which Mr. Morin declined to name. The manager is also planning to launch additional investment strategies and is working on an active equity fund and alternative private market fund, he said.

The minimum investment is C$5 million, and fees will be "very competitive," Mr. Morin said, declining to provide further fee information.

According to Morneau Shepell's Mr. Labrosse, TCC will "have no choice but to charge competitive fees" to attract clients because it is "still a relatively small manager when you compare them with the other big asset managers in Canada."

Jana Steele, a Toronto-based partner in the pensions and benefits group at law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, said there is "an assumption of risk" involved with the Air Canada subsidiary taking on external clients, such as being aware of the fiduciary duties of other pension funds.

Furthermore, Julien Ranger, a Montreal-based partner in Osler's pensions and benefits group, said one area that TCC would need to be mindful of from a fiduciary perspective is hiring a third party to advise the company.

If the third party, for instance, is related to or already working with parent company Air Canada, TCC would "need to consider their fiduciary obligations" as a money manager, he said.