OMERS

OMERS, officially the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, is a pension fund created by statute in 1962 to handle the retirement benefits of local government employees in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has become one of the largest institutional investors in Canada.^[1] About 70% of the plan is funded by investments, and 30% by pension contributions. As of December 2010^[update], OMERS has about 53.3 billion Canadian dollars worth of net investment assets.^[2] The system now includes firefighters, police, emergency services staff, Children's Aid Society workers, school staff other than teachers, and transit and hydro workers.^[1]

Structure

OMERS is regulated by the "Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Act, 2006" (S.O. 2006, chapter 2), an Ontario provincial law which superseded the older "Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System Act".

Under the 2006 law, OMERS is actually composed of two corporations:

• The Administration Corporation, which used to be known as the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Board, is responsible for day-to-day operation, including management of pensions and investments.^[3]
• The Sponsors Corporation, which represents the plan's members, is responsible for overall plan design and sets the rules for appointment and compensation of its own board and the Administration Corporation board.^[3]

Investments

OMERS has four major investment divisions:^[2]

• Borealis Infrastructure, which invests in public infrastructure
• OMERS Capital Markets, which manages investment in the public markets, such as government bonds and stock in publicly traded companies
• OMERS Capital Partners, which concentrates on private equity investment
• Oxford Properties, which owns real estate such as office buildings and shopping centers

The OMERS top investment assets as of December 31, 2007, were:

Investment	Amount (CAD)
Province of Ontario and provincial bonds	$2,725,000,000
Government of Canada bonds	$3,354,000,000
Real Return Bonds	$2,039,000,000
Private debt	$619,000,000
Corporate bonds	$582,000,000
Cash and short term deposits	$11,374,000,000
Mortgages	$814,000,000

Borealis Infrastructure

OMERS' investment strategy since 2003 has been to increase its investment in infrastructure from to 15% the former 7.9%.^[4]

Outline of assets:^[5]

• Associated British Ports (33.3%)
• BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust
  • Bruce Power Limited Partnership (BPLP) (31.2%,^[6] bought from British Energy in 2003) — including Bruce Nuclear Generating Station Bruce B facility (reactors 3 and 4) and overall management of the station
  • Bruce Power A Limited Partnership (BALP) (47.4%; created in 2005) — to run Bruce Nuclear Generating Station Bruce A facility (reactors 1 and 2)^[6]
• BPC Maritime Corporation
  • Strait Crossing Development Inc. (65%) — operator of the 12.9-kilometre (8.0 mi) Confederation Bridge between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick until 2032
• Ceda Holdings Ltd. (owned since 2005) — factory and refinery maintenance
• Ciel Satellite Group (partly owned)^[7] — owner of the 129°W satellite orbit slot: currently occupied by Echo-V; will be replaced by Ciel-2 in late 2008^[8]
• Coliseum at Toronto's Exhibition Place (shares income in equity partnership)^[9]
• Detroit River Rail Tunnel (part owner)
• Enwave (majority owned) — district heating operator for Toronto
• Enersource Corporation (10%) — an electric company in Ontario
• Express Pipeline System (partly owned) — major oil pipeline network, including the Platte Pipeline
• LifeLabs (formerly MDS Diagnostics) (owned since 2007) — local diagnostic laboratories in Ontario and British Columbia^[9]
• Porter Aviation Holdings (part investor)^[10]
  • Porter Airlines
• Scotia Gas Networks (25% owned) — gas works for southern parts of England and 75% of Scotland^[11]
• High Speed 1^[12]

Borealis also owns 16 school buildings, leased to the Province of Nova Scotia, and 12 nursing home buildings, leased to the Province of Ontario.^[5][9]

OMERS Capital Partners

Among the private companies OCP owns are Marketwire (purchased at the end of 2006)^[13] and Oxford Properties (purchased at the beginning of 2003).^{[citation needed]}

OMERS and Apax Partners (a fund OMERS invests in) jointly own Cengage Learning, a large education resource company formerly known as Thomson Learning before OMERS and Apax Partners bought it on May 11, 2007. Some parts of Thomson Learning had been sold off to other groups before this sale. Among Cengage's major brands are Gale (formerly Thomson Gale) and Nelson Education (Nelson Canada, not Nelson USA Education).

Outline of assets:^[14]

• Affinia Group Inc. (20%) — aftermarket car parts manufacturer
• Avago^{[clarification needed]}
• Cari-All Group Inc. — shopping cart and shelving manufacturer
• CHG Healthcare Services — provider of locum tenens (temporary physician staff)
• Constellation Software Inc. (34%) — vertical market software maker
• Cookie Jar Group (formerly Cinar) — television production and educational material publisher
  • Cookie Jar Education
    • Carson-Dellosa — classroom educational material publisher/manufacturer
    • HighReach Learning — retail educational material publisher/manufacturer
  • Cookie Jar Entertainment
    • DIC Entertainment (to merge in late 2008)^[15]
      • KidsCo (33.3%) — children's television channel^[15]
• Faiveley Transport — railroad equipment manufacturer
• Give and Go Prepared Foods Corp. — Toronto wholesale bakery
• Golf Town — largest Canadian golf retailer
• Honsel International Technologies (partly owned since 2004) — auto part metal manufacturer
• Jostens^{[clarification needed]}
• Marketwire — press release firm^[13]
• MAAX Inc. (partly owned since 2004) — bathtub and cabinet manufacturer
• Nelson Education (Nelson Canada) (OMERS is majority owner, but brand is treated as part of Cengage Learning) — education publisher
• Q9 Networks (partly owned since 2001) — Internet infrastructure and datacenter operator
• Sitel (formerly Client Logic) (9%) — outsourced customer care and back office operations
• SunGard Data Systems Inc.
• TeraGo Networks Inc. — wireless broadband Internet service provider
• Trident Exploration Corp. — natural gas (coalbed methane) exploration in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin
• Warner Chilcott (less than 5%) — pharmaceutical company
• Xantrex (partly owned since 1999) — power inverter manufacturer

See also: Cengage Learning#Brands and Category:DIC Entertainment

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "About OMERS". OMERS. 2008-06-18. http://www.omers.com/About_OMERS.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-17. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "OMERS - Home". OMERS. 2008-07-04. http://www.omers.com/home.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-17. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Sponsors Corporation". OMERS. 2008-05-22. http://www.omers.com/Plan_Governance/Sponsors_Corporation.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-17. 
4. ^ "Snapshot". Borealis Infrastructure. Archived from the original on 2008-02-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20080208090857/http://www.borealisinfrastructure.com/profile/snapshot.aspx. Retrieved 2008-07-18. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "Assets". OMERS. 2007-06-26. Archived from the original on 2008-06-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20080618210034/http://www.omers.com/Infrastructure/Assets.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-18. 
6. ^ ^{a b} "Agreement reached to secure Bruce Power’s future. Restart of Units 1 and 2 first phase of $4.25 billion investment". 2005-10-17. http://www.brucepower.com/pagecontent.aspx?navuid=1212&dtuid=1740. Retrieved 2008-07-18. 
7. ^ "Borealis Infrastructure : Assets : Telecommunications". Borealis Infrastructure. http://www.borealisinfrastructure.com/assets/Telecommunications.aspx. Retrieved 2008-07-18. ^{[dead link]}
8. ^ "About the Satellites". Ceil Satellite Group. 2008-07-09. Archived from the original on 2008-02-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20080203231022/http://www.cielsatellite.ca/satellites.html. Retrieved 2008-07-18. 
9. ^ ^{a b c} "Borealis Infrastructure : Assets : Infrastructure Buildings". Borealis Infrastrcuture. http://www.borealisinfrastructure.com/assets/buildings.aspx. Retrieved 2008-07-17. ^{[dead link]}
10. ^ "About Porter: Our Team: Investors Background". http://www.flyporter.com/en/team_investors.aspx. Retrieved 2009-04-07. 
11. ^ "Borealis Infrastructure : Assets : Energy". Borealis Infrastructure. http://www.borealisinfrastructure.com/assets/energy.aspx. Retrieved 2008-07-18. ^{[dead link]}
12. ^ "High Speed 1 concession awarded to Canadian pension consortium". Railway Gazette International. 5 November 2010. http://www.railwaygazette.com/nc/news/single-view/view/high-speed-1-concession-awarded-to-canadian-pension-consortium.html. 
13. ^ ^{a b} "OMERS Capital Partners Acquires CCNMatthews". OMERS Capital Partners. 2006-12-26. http://www.omerscapital.com/index.cfm?PID=16044&PIDList=16044&PressID=1082&ACT=Display. Retrieved 2008-07-17. 
14. ^ "Assets". OMERS. 2007-12-17. Archived from the original on 2008-06-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20080618210155/http://www.omers.com/Private_equity/Assets.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-18. 
15. ^ ^{a b} "Cookie Jar and DIC Entertainment to Merge, Creating Independent Global Children's Entertainment and Education Powerhouse". Cookie Jar Entertainment. June 20, 2008. http://www.thecookiejarcompany.com/news2.php?id=127. Retrieved 2008-07-18. ^{[dead link]}

See also

• Canada Pension Plan
• Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

External links

• Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System Act, 2006 — Ontario government edition
• OMERS — main site
  • Major Investments — lists investments, including bonds and major public companies
  • OMERS Capital Partners — private equity site, including private funds and directly funded companies