VANCOUVER – The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has gone shopping and picked up quite a deal.
CPPIB has acquired U.S. luxury retailer Nieman Marcus Group in a $6-billion deal with Dallas-based buying partner Ares Management.
The deal means Canadians’ pension dollars are now invested in the chain and its 79 stores, including those under other names such as Bergdof Goodman.
CPPIB is heavily invested in holdings around the world, from retail spaces to development firms and car racing.
Global News takes a look at some of the investments CPPIB has made.
99 Cents Only
For the low, low price of $1.6 billion, CPPIB and Ares could have bought more than 1.6 billion lighters, cheap plastic cups, packages of party streamers or fake prescription glasses.
The California-based chain 99 Cents Only was acquired by CPPIB and Ares in 2012, nearly 30 years after founder David Gold opened the discount retailer. Despite selling liquidation items for 99 cents for the better part of three decades, some items sold for 99.99 cents while some prices were dropped to as low as 49 cents in 2007 to deal with a $5.2-million loss in its second quarter.
The Gold family remained involved with the company until January of this year, shortly before David Gold’s death in April at the age of 80.
Shopping centres
According to the CPPIB website, the pension plan is invested in several shopping centres around the world, including two in Brazil, one in Germany, one in Sweden and three in Australia. CPPIB’s stakes in Australia malls total more than $891 million AUD (approximately $852 million CAD by today’s exchange rate).
Formula One
Start your pensions? CPPIB doesn’t own any part of London, U.K.-based Formula One Group, but it did finance $400-million of a $1-billion “private high-yield loan” in October 2012.
At the same time, it took over a 39 per cent stake in Spain’s Dorna Sports — a sports management, marketing and media company which holds the rights to the MotoGP motorcycling championship
Gangnam style
Or, we should say Gangnam tower. CPPIB’s most recent acquisition, before buying into Nieman Marcus, was a 50 per cent share of the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. office tower in Seoul’s Gangnam district.
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