The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. (BCI) has joined the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in suspending new investments in private assets in China, says a Bloomberg report.
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. (BCI) has joined the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in suspending new investments in private assets in China, says a Bloomberg report.
Daniel Garant, BCI’s global head of public markets, told a Canadian parliamentary committee that it still has Chinese investments, mostly through public markets and index funds. These amount to less than five per cent of its holdings. Over the past two years it has reduced its exposure, including pausing direct investments, in China and Hong Kong by approximately 15%.
Ontario Teachers’ executive Stephen McLennan told the same committee two months ago his fund’s decision to cease private-asset deals was “driven by our assessment that the risk landscape in China has substantially changed over the last two to three years.” He cited the country’s difficult relations with the US and Canada, as well as regulatory changes within China.
