The Globe and Mail

Money manager Connor Clark & Lunn is swimming against the current by moving into private equity at a time when the sector faces credit market headwinds.
Working from the logic that the best time to build is in a down market, CC&L recruited Jeff Wigle as the head of its new team. He was a Toronto-based vice-president at Richardson Capital for the past three years. That's the private equity arm of the financial services company controlled by the Richardson family of Winnipeg.
CC&L's private equity approach is to take $5-million to $25-million stakes in companies, and is open to any industry. This move was first noted on the Bill's Buzz blog at executive search firm Vlaad & Co.
Last year, the money manager opened an infrastructure arm, with a mid-market approach and a plan to take $25-million to $750-million positions in projects.
CC&L has its roots in the institutional management of stocks and bonds, and is entrusted with $37-billion by pension funds, endowments and wealthy individuals. It has added new asset classes steadily in recent years, in step with client demand. The employee-owned company is one of Canada's largest remaining independent fund managers.