Canadian pensions trade $1.7bn portfolio

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has emerged as the buyer of a $1.7 billion portfolio of stakes from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, two months after the sale launched.

Toronto-headquartered OTPP had shopped a global mix of private equity interests worth “at least $1 billion” in a Greenhill-advised process in September, Secondaries Investor reported. The portfolio had contained as many as 30 fund stakes.

CPPIB has agreed to acquire the portfolio, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

PE Hub first reported that CPPIB was the buyer in the deal.

OTPP’s sale is the latest in a growing list of North American investors selling $1 billion-plus portfolios. On Thursday, Secondaries Investor reported that Ardian had agreed to acquire a $1 billion portfolio of private markets stakes from Maryland State Retirement and Pension System.

Last year was the most active year since inception for CPPIB’s secondaries team, investing C$4.2 billion ($3.2 billion; €2.8 billion) across 14 deals, according to its latest annual report.

OTPP has sold on the secondaries market before: last year it offloaded an interest worth at least $100 million in Black Diamond Capital Management‘s 2006-vintage BDCM Opportunity Fund II to HarbourVest Partners, while in 2016 it sold a large portfolio to Ardian in a process run by Evercore.

Pensions were the second most active sellers of fund stakes in the first half of this year, accounting for 23 percent of sales, according to a report by intermediary Setter Capital.

CPPIB, OTPP and Greenhill declined to comment on the deal.