Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), one of Canada’s largest pension funds, plans to close its Hong Kong office as it seeks to optimise its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a Bloomberg report.
Some Hong Kong-based employees will be offered to relocate to Singapore while others will leave the firm as the pension giant winds down on-the-ground operations over the coming 18 months, the report added.
The decision marked Ontario Teachers’ continued pullback from China amid geopolitical tensions. In 2023, it closed down its China equity investment team based in Hong Kong.
At the same time, it ramped up activities in other Asian markets by opening offices in Singapore and Mumbai in 2022.
The fund had 35 staff in the Hong Kong office in 2022. That number has since declined to about 20 employees.
Ontario Teachers’, which invests in more than 50 countries and oversees pensions for 340,000 current and retired teachers. Its regional workforce totals over 60, with C$22 billion invested across Asia-Pacific.
On its website, OTTP said Asia Pacific remains a focus, with a strategy centred on Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, and Korea. It is also diversifying across asset classes and tailoring strategies to local markets.
Its investment activities in the region include an agreement to bring on CDPQ as an equity partner in Connexa, a designer, builder, and operator of New Zealand’s most comprehensive mobile tower infrastructure network.
It has also invested in Fleet Space Technologies, Australia’s space exploration company; Mintifi, India’s supply chain financing platform; Perfios, India’s B2B SaaS fintech company; and co-led a fundraising for SmartHR, a cloud-native human resources management platform in Japan.
The pension fund also concluded the first IPO for Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG) – Pony.AI, a Chinese autonomous driving company, which was listed on Nasdaq.
