Penison funds, generally, do not buy companies. In fact, they are prevented by law from owning more than 30% of the voting shares in most companies (exceptions include real estate and resource firms). More importantly, the press often misleads people when they talk about pension funds as investors, implying they are active investors. The overwhelming majority of pension funds do not manage their own investments. They hire money managers (the McLean Buddens, Phillips, Hager & Norths, and Jarislowsky Frasers of this world) to manage their money. These investment managers never buy control of companies.
The funds that do manage their own investments are huge ones like Teachers and OMERS in Ontario, or the Caisse in Quebec. They are the exception, not the rule. And, even these guys farm out much of their money to external managers.
The only recent instance I can think of when a pension fund bought a company was this year when Teachers bought a property company (I can't remember which one).
So there are no pension funds lining up a takeover of DMX. All the better for us, really. I'd rather make a huge killing over a few years than a small bump now. |
