The man who manages $70-billion of Alberta's provincial funds said the political furor over his organization's $280-million in Calgary-based Precision Drilling is "aging me prematurely."
This update from my colleague Nathan VanderKlippe in Report on Business.
The Alberta Investment Management Corp., or Aimco, has been accused by columnists of bringing back socialism, by industry of bailing out a competitor and, this week, by the provincial Liberals of influence-peddling. The argument spilled into the legislature on Monday when Liberal finance critic Dave Taylor made allegations of a conflict of interest, since Precision founder Hank Swartout and Aimco vice-chair George Gosbee are friends.
"Public investment decision should be made with the clearest possible eye for value and returns, not personal connections," Taylor said in a release.
But, as Aimco chief executive Leo de Bever has pointed out, Swartout left Precision two years ago, and Gosbee has no involvement today.
"Everyone in Calgary who is anyone in the provincial economcy does know everyone else. That in itself does not constitute a conflict," de Bever said. "The investment proposal was first brought to the board last Friday. George Gosbee saw it at the same time as anyone else."
The firestorm has caused no end of grief for de Bever, who assumed the top spot at Aimco last summer, just months after it was sliced apart from the provincial government and made into an arm's length organization. He has said the Precision investment was made purely on its business merits, without government interference, and is considering a press release to spell out his stance.
Aimco, which manages Alberta's pensions and Heritage fund, is also considering investments in other Alberta companies who seem likely to provide a high rate of return, he said, but the furor has made that proposition trickier.
"I'm going to have to do either one of two things: I'm going to have to convince the population that we're doing this at arm's length and I hope I can do that," he said. "[Or] you basically say [Alberta investments are] just too hot to handle. But you don't like to do that. I mean, why would you?"
