The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is bringing in a new chief investment officer with extensive experience in Denmark.
DEAL OF THE DAY
Onex's plastic expertise pays off
Onex Corp. is selling a major investment in Europe to a Chinese buyer that has long had its eye on the asset.
The Toronto-based private equity firm is parting ways with plastic and rubber processor KraussMaffei Group for a €925-million ($1.4-billion) cash enterprise value to China National Chemical Corp., a state-owned giant better known as ChemChina.
The sale comes just three years after Onex bought the Munich-based business in a deal valued at $736-million. It was significant for its size and for being Onex's first European-headquartered company acquired after its London office was formed in 2012. KraussMaffei produces injection moulding machines that make plastic things – from car bumpers to sterile disposable plastic syringes – but also has other businesses, such as one that manufactures automated robots. Story
STREET MOVES
Desjardins hires another ex-Dundee staffer
Rachel Goldman, who parted ways with Dundee Securities Corp. late last year, has resurfaced at Desjardins Securities Inc. in a senior sales and trading role.
Ms. Goldman started with Desjardins as managing director of institutional equity sales on Monday. She will continue to be based in Montreal.
"She's a well-regarded institutional salesperson who has a couple of decades of experience and we're lucky and pleased to have her on board," Mark Lucey, head of equities with Desjardins, said in an interview.
"Historically, Dundee in terms of independent dealers had a strong Montreal desk, and with some of the changes at Dundee, Rachel became available."
Ms. Goldman is the third member of Dundee's sales and trading team to land at Desjardins in the past six months or so. Pierre Lévesque, who left Dundee around the same time as Ms. Goldman, joined as vice-president of institutional trading last week. He replaced Felix Bélanger, who left Desjardins for Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. Meantime in mid-2015, liability trader Adam Deffett, also formerly with Dundee, joined Desjardins.
Teachers names new CIO
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan is bringing in a new chief investment officer with extensive experience in Denmark.
Bjarne Graven Larsen is joining Teachers in February as CIO and executive vice-president. He has already been the CIO of a large pension plan, having held the title at ATP, the largest Danish pension fund. It oversees the equivalent of $145-billion in assets and manages the state's old-age pensions, disability pensions and other social security and welfare systems.
Mr. Graven Larsen has built a career in Denmark, having also led a bank called FIH Erhvervsbank AS through a turnaround after ATP took a stake in it. He has worked for the country's central bank and a large mortgage bank. He was most recently chief financial officer at a large holding company called Novo AS in Copenhagen. Story
INSIGHT
Bank executives and oil
Oil is going to be a hot topic among bank executives this year – and the conversation will likely get started on Tuesday at the Canadian Bank CEO Conference.
Consider the urgency: The price of oil – exploring 12-year lows – is fast approaching worst-case hypothetical scenarios used in bank stress tests in 2015, raising concerns about whether loan losses will spike as energy companies fail to meet their debt obligations. Big Six loans to the oil and gas sector total nearly $113-billion.
Analysts peppered bank executives with questions about their exposure to the sector during first-quarter earnings calls early last year, as they tried to get a handle on the extent to which tumbling oil prices would affect loans to Canadian energy companies. Bank executives responded with reassurances that credit quality was strong. Story
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Niall McGee