Strategic Investments
OMERS Strategic Investments (OSI) was established in late 2008 with a broad strategic mandate. A key mandate for OSI is to build long-term strategic relationships with like-minded global institutional investors to form strategic alliances that will enable the OAC to access new sources of capital.
These new sources of capital will enable the OAC to participate in the acquisition of large-scale private market assets around the world. OSI is also responsible for promoting the intellectual capital in all the Investment Entities under the OMERS Worldwide brand and ensuring that the OAC has a presence in and knowledge of global markets through business relationships and a network of OMERS Worldwide offices. OSI is also actively managing value-add investment platforms that will expand our capacity to generate attractive investment opportunities and build global business relationships for the benefit of all the Investment Entities.OSI had investment assets totalling $1,352 million and generated a net investment loss of $37 million in 2009 for a return of –1.2 per cent. This compares to the benchmark of 10.7 per cent and a net investment loss in 2008 of $3 million. The 2009 loss and negative return were the result of the mark-to-market impact from the sharp declines in natural gas prices on our energy investments in western Canada, the transaction costs associated with the acquisition of our strategic investment platforms to support the growth of the Investment Entities and accelerating the execution of our strategic initiatives.