{"id":393896,"date":"2026-04-23T15:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/393896\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:08:13","slug":"cppibs-john-graham-says-pension-fund-open-for-business-to-invest-in-defence-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/393896\/","title":{"rendered":"CPPIB\u2019s John Graham says pension fund \u2018open for business\u2019 to invest in defence sector"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

CPPIB president and chief executive officer John Graham at Intersect 26 in Toronto on Wednesday.Fred Lum\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board chief executive officer John Graham said he is increasingly encouraged that Canada is creating more large-scale opportunities to invest, and the fund is \u201copen for business\u201d to the defence sector as the country ramps up spending on national security.<\/p>\n

Mr. Graham said CPPIB<\/a>, the country\u2019s largest pension fund with $780-billion of assets, has been \u201ccurious and interested\u201d to explore new options for investing domestically. Now, \u201cwe\u2019re very encouraged on the discussions and the activity that\u2019s starting to happen,\u201d he said at The Globe and Mail\u2019s Intersect 26 event in Toronto on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting to see more opportunities. We\u2019re engaged in a handful of processes on big opportunities,\u201d he added, without specifying what those investments might be. <\/p>\n

He stopped short of saying whether CPPIB intends to boost the share of its portfolio that is invested in Canada, which stands at 12 per cent, or about $93-billion. <\/p>\n

Ottawa should change tax regime to attract investment, Citibank Canada CEO says<\/a><\/p>\n

CPPIB reports net return of 0.5% in volatile third quarter<\/a><\/p>\n

Blake Hutcheson, the CEO of the $145-billion Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, said this week that the fund plans to add $10-billion<\/a> in additional investment in Canada over the next five years. That would raise the share of its portfolio in Canada to 25 per cent from 18 per cent, and was the first firm target set by one of the country\u2019s major pension funds to boost its domestic exposure. <\/p>\n

Mr. Graham said CPPIB\u2019s interest in Canadian investments is broad-based, spanning private assets such as infrastructure and private equity, as well as public stocks and provincial bonds. <\/p>\n

He said investing in defence is \u201con mandate\u201d and that \u201cabsolutely, we\u2019ll look at defence opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CEO also said the fund has been \u201csteadfast\u201d in its support for the oil and gas sector, in spite of criticism from environmental advocates, and has also built a renewable-energy portfolio.<\/p>\n

As investors rush to back the development of artificial intelligence, Mr. Graham said, CPPIB has backed away from concentrated bets on large technology companies, even though it has at times been \u201csuper painful\u201d to watch those share prices surge.<\/p>\n

The fund has tried to limit its exposure to AI risks by instead investing in the \u201cpicks and shovels\u201d behind new models, such as data centres and the energy to power them.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology can change the world and be overvalued, it can be both,\u201d he said, but \u201cwe actually don\u2019t know\u201d whether a bubble is developing.<\/p>\n

He stressed that CPPIB will stick to its mandate to maximize investment returns without risking undue losses, wherever those investments may be.<\/p>\n

Asked whether there has been explicit or implicit pressure from Ottawa to invest more of CPPIB\u2019s assets in Canada, Mr. Graham said, \u201cActually, no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne was also asked Wednesday whether the federal government would tell pension funds to do more in Canada. He indicated a preference for co-operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they see for themselves the attractiveness of Canada, and we\u2019re happy to work with them,\u201d he told reporters in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

With a report from Stephanie Levitz in Ottawa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: CPPIB president and chief executive officer John Graham at Intersect 26 in Toronto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[276,261,277,251,249,278,138,275,248,268,269,264,250,247,219,84,273,267,246,259,289,252,253,266,262,263,256,279,257,284,111,285,139,287,282,286,69,280,283,244,245,254,271,272,135,270,281,260,145,274,265,258,255,288],"class_list":{"0":"post-393896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-finance","27":"tag-foreign-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","30":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","31":"tag-government","32":"tag-life-news","33":"tag-lifestyle","34":"tag-local-news","35":"tag-manitoba","36":"tag-national-news","37":"tag-new-brunswick","38":"tag-new-zealand","39":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","40":"tag-newzealand","41":"tag-northwest-territories","42":"tag-nova-scotia","43":"tag-nunavut","44":"tag-nz","45":"tag-ontario","46":"tag-pei","47":"tag-personal-finance","48":"tag-personalfinance","49":"tag-photos","50":"tag-political-news","51":"tag-political-opinion","52":"tag-politics","53":"tag-politics-news","54":"tag-quebec","55":"tag-sports-news","56":"tag-technology","57":"tag-travel","58":"tag-trudeau","59":"tag-us-news","60":"tag-world-news","61":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}