Friday, February 17, 2012

Canada Pension Plan hires former Goldman Sachs man to invest in Asian markets

 You might think that the Canada Pension Plan that holds investment funds that are used to pay government pensions to seniors might concentrate upon investing in Canada to help create jobs in Canada and use its funds to develop Canada. But the plan operators seem to take a global outlook and hence hired an ex-Goldman Sachs Banker Mark Machin.
   Machin will head the Asian Unit CPPIB Asia Inc. as of  March 19th. Machin was vice-Chairman for the Asia-Pacific (except Japan) at Goldman=Sachs. In an interview in Hong Kong the executive vie- president of Canada Pension said: “Our expectation is that our investments in Asia-Pacific will grow disproportionate to the upside of the total fund,”
   Machin will be based in Hong Kong. Canada Pension has already committed capital to funds that focus on Asia. Beyond equity Canada Pension is broadening investing into real estate and infrastructure in China, Australia, India and Japan. Some of this sounds rather risky for funds that are meant to issue a guaranteed stream of income for pensioners in the future. If there are problems and returns turn sour we will be told that Canadians are living beyond their means and need to lower expectations. Perhaps all that was needed was safer investments for our pension funds and investments that helped out Canada not emerging markets. For more see this article.




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