Canada to Allow CPPIB to Own Publicly Traded Companies Outright

By Paul Vieira

OTTAWA--Canada says it would remove a cap on how much of a publicly traded company a federally regulated pension plan can own, a change that it signaled a year ago.

Current laws limit pension plans to holding no more than 30% of the shares of a Canadian public company.

"This will make it easier for Canadian pension funds to make significant investments in Canadian entities," the finance ministry said in a statement. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland formally unveiled the change at a press conference in Toronto.

It was unclear when this would be implemented.

Canada's pension plans have assets of over 3 trillion Canadian dollars, or the equivalent of $2.11 trillion. Freeland said over a year ago that officials were looking into this change, which would affect federally regulated pensions, most notably the CPP Investment Board, which manages the contributions into the Canada Pension Plan.

Other big Canadian pension funds, such as the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, are allowed to own companies outright as they fall under provincial regulations.

Write to Paul Vieira at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

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