In 2011, the Editors of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal inducted The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan into “The Private Equity Hall of Fame” for its “enduring contributions to venture capital, buyout and related private equity disciplines.” The rationale for selecting OTPP (according to OTPP) was based on the fund’s creative approach to combining external funds, co-investments and direct investments in order to meet the pension’s long-term objectives (and the fact that it had been doing this for 20 years). On hand to accept the award was Jane Rowe – the Senior Vice President of Teachers’ Private Capital. To be fair, Ms. Rowe can’t claim much credit for TPC’s past performance, as she only joined the group in October 2010. However, she undoubtedly can speak to the hall-of-fame investment approach and strategy, which means that when she’s talking...I’m listening. And, as it happens, she was recently talking. So without further ado, here are some deep thoughts by Jane Rowe:
On The PE Program: ‘We invest in PE funds. We do deals as co-investment partners. And we also invest in companies on our own. Together, we’ve put about $12 billion to work and generated returns in the high teens, top quartile, over the 20-year period.” On OTPP’s Investment Beliefs: ‘When we think about investing, we don’t think about next year. We really are long-term, patient investors. So when something comes into our portfolio, we’re thinking it’s probably going to be there for 5, 7, and 10 years possibly. Maple Leaf Sports was in our portfolio for 17 years!’ On OTPP’s Current Focus: ‘In terms of interesting industries for us today; we’re keen on consumer, retail, technology and healthcare.’ On The Importance of Human Resources: ‘What’s fundamental in attracting the right talent is to make sure you have compensation programs to attract and retain talent, and I think the Canadian pension funds are doing a great job.’ On PE in Public Pension Portfolios: ‘We think PE is an important asset class for a pension plan. Allows us that luxury of making long-term investment decisions and working with management teams and other shareholders to design and build a healthy company to go forward. Thematically it’s an important part of the economy.’
