The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which has invested about $2 billion in India since 2010, has elevated Suyi Kim as managing director and head of Asia, and Deborah Orida as managing director and head of private equity - Asia, it said in a statement.
CPPIB has also appointed Alain Carrier, who has recently led CPPIB’s European operations from London, as senior managing director and head of international.
Carrier, CBBIP’s European head, will now oversee its international activities in addition to continuing as head of Europe. In his new role, he will report to president and CEO Mark Machin, who previously led international investments for the fund.
Mark Machin became CPPIB’s president and CEO last month following Mark Wiseman’s decision to quit CPPIB to pursue a senior leadership role with BlackRock Inc.
All three managing directors have worked at CPPIB for several years, with Orida joining the fund most recently in 2009.
“These appointments are an excellent reflection of both the deep bench strength and great international experience we have within CPPIB,†Machin said in a statement.
Kim will serve under Carrier as head of Asia. Her former role leading private investments in Asia will be filled by Orida, former head of international relationship investments. This included buying minority stakes in Asian and European public companies.
As head of Asia, Suyi will be responsible for overseeing CPPIB’s portfolio of Asian investments. Suyi joined CPPIB nine years ago, establishing CPPIB’s first international office in Hong Kong and has overseen the private equity business in Asia most recently as head of private equity Asia.
Suyi’s previous stints include Teacher’s Private Capital, the private equity group at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, The Carlyle Group, McKinsey & Co and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
On the other side, Orida will be responsible for leading private investments in Asia with a focus on both direct private equity investments and fund commitments.
These appointments were effective June 21, 2016.
In India, CPPIB has already invested around $2 billion and is open to investing in large companies along with PE firms. It opened its first India office in Mumbai last October and has been looking to grow its team to increase its exposure to the country.
CPPIB recently said it will invest $150 million (over Rs 1,000 crore) in the renewable energy sector in India by 2020.
The fund saw its exposure to the rupee rise fastest among all other global currencies, reflecting its fast-paced investment activity in the country, during the last financial year. While CPPIB’s exposure to India in its overall portfolio was minuscule—under 1%—the pension fund made a bigger bet on one of the world's fastest growing economy last year. Data collated from its annual report for the year ended March, 2016, reveal that its exposure to Indian currency went up 35.4%, faster than that for Chinese yuan and British pound.
In March this year, CPPIB purchased just under 1 per cent additional stake in India's fourth-largest private lender Kotak Mahindra Bank from Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation for Rs 1,151 crore ($170 million).
In the same month, it signed an agreement with Kotak Mahindra Group to invest up to $525 million (about Rs 3,500 crore) in stressed assets in the country’s banking and corporate sectors.
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