Listen to the latest episode of the East of Montreal podcast featuring Jeff Wigle, Managing Director and Group Head at Banyan Capital Partners, as he discusses our private equity strategy, experience investing in Atlantic Canada and Newcrete and his views of the current market.
Listen to the full episode of the East of Montreal podcast.
At the heart of our organization is the commitment and desire to provide superior performance and service to our clients. Our primary objective is to meet our clients’ expectations while ensuring our people are highly motivated and enthusiastic. This requires that we keep the business narrowly defined on what we do best, and endeavour to remain at the cutting edge of research and development initiatives within financial markets.
Each year, we take the opportunity to provide our clients with an update on our business, outlining how we are directing our efforts within CC&L Investment Management (CC&L) to fulfill our commitment to delivering investment performance and superior client service.
Despite periods of market volatility in 2024, the year will likely be remembered for a favourable macroeconomic backdrop of accommodative monetary policy in a resilient economy. The era characterized by low inflation and low interest rates – which fueled robust investment returns for many years – is behind us. The persistent threat of inflation, combined with higher interest rates over the medium to long term, presents a more challenging environment for investors. As we enter 2025, we anticipate increased market volatility in a late-cycle environment. For a comprehensive review of our investment outlook, please see our 2025 Financial Markets Forecast.
Our business structure provides stability and keeps us focused on maintaining a long-term horizon. We have successfully navigated diverse investment environments since our company’s inception in 1982. Regardless of the operating environment, we are committed to creating the internal conditions necessary to fulfill our commitments to clients. Our ability to do so begins and ends with the quality of our people and the strength of our relationships. As our teams continue to grow, we remain committed to investing in our people through career development and leadership programs. Our focus is on enhancing skillsets, strengthening the depth of our teams and investment processes, and planning for succession. We are dedicated to preserving a strong alignment of incentives which has allowed us to fulfill our commitments to clients while ensuring our people remain motivated and enthusiastic.
This year, we would like to acknowledge our client partnerships. We have the privilege of working with over 200 clients worldwide. In the past five years, we have welcomed more than 100 new clients. These new partnerships include clients from Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Notably, among them are several of the largest pension funds in the world. Equally important, we deeply value the longstanding relationships we have built with our early clients, with more than a third of them entrusting us with their assets for over a decade. These enduring partnerships reflect our commitment to understanding evolving client needs and developing tailored investment solutions. Through collaboration with clients, and in many cases their investment consultants, most of these longstanding mandates have evolved to include new or enhanced investment solutions since their inception.
The expansion of our investment and risk management capabilities and client base have meaningfully transformed our business. We firmly believe that the investments we have made and innovations driving this transformation will deliver long-term benefits for all our clients.
In closing, I extend my sincere gratitude to our clients for your trust, confidence and continued partnership.
Sincerely,
Martin Gerber
President & Chief Investment Officer
In 2024, our firm continued to grow, welcoming 18 new hires and bringing our personnel count to 135. Our business also benefits from the broader CC&L Financial Group, which employs 441 professionals supporting business management, operations, marketing and distribution.
Our firm’s stability and specialization remain key drivers of our business. Succession planning and career development are central to our approach, ensuring continuity and long-term success.
We are pleased to share that several employees were promoted to Principal, effective January 1, 2025, in recognition of their important and growing contributions to our firm.
CC&L’s Board of Directors is also pleased to announce the promotion of new business owners, effective January 1, 2025, in recognition of their leadership and impact in their roles.
Throughout 2024, TJ Sutter partnered with David George as Co-Head of Fixed Income, sharing the responsibility for investment decisions, business operations, team management and strategic direction of the team. TJ has now assumed full leadership, with David transitioning to an advisory role until his retirement on December 31, 2025. TJ joined CC&L’s Board of Directors in 2025, succeeding David.
Over the past three years, we have worked with Simon MacNair, Portfolio Manager, on a gradual succession plan to transition his portfolio construction responsibilities to several key individuals on the team. This process will be completed by year-end when Simon officially retires.
The portfolio construction functions have been undertaken by sub-teams, with leaders in each area who have progressively assumed greater responsibility and became business owners in 2025.
In 2024, the team launched a “core plus” strategy that complements the unique and successful CC&L Universe Bond Alpha Plus and Long Bond Alpha Plus strategies. In the new CC&L Core Plus Fixed Income Strategy, the “plus” is delivered by specialist teams within the CC&L Financial Group affiliates. The strategy offers diversified returns from high-yield bonds, commercial mortgages and emerging market corporate debt. The team is also seeing inquiries into investment solutions where it has unique capabilities, including absolute returns and alpha overlays.
Over the past several years, the fundamental equity team has been developing the next generation of investment leaders. The team welcomed a new trader and analyst covering the technology sector in 2024. In addition, Michael McPhillips, Portfolio Manager & Research Head, was identified as the future CIO of the team. The primary functions of the CIO role are setting equity strategy, leading the portfolio management team and overall team investment leadership. Michael will transition into the role over the coming years, working closely with co-heads Gary Baker and Andrew Zimcik. Michael is a business owner and has been a fundamental equity team member since 2013.
Joe Tibble, Trader, became a business owner in 2025. Joe joined CC&L in 2022. His experience on both the sell-side and buy-side enabled him to step into the role seamlessly and take on greater responsibility on the trading desk.
The team continues to deliver on clients’ investment objectives across the different fundamental equity strategies. The team’s investment philosophy and process are unchanged, and we believe will continue to benefit our clients in the future. The unique features of our investment approach include always maintaining coverage of all Canadian stocks, strict target price discipline, incorporating macroeconomic research into stock and sector selection, and rigorous risk management.
The team grew to 79 members, with 13 new hires in 2024. Investment professionals were added to all sub-teams during the year. Investment in leadership resources across sub-teams will continue at a similar pace this year. The steady growth of the team reflects the need to continually expand and reinvest in our capabilities as the size and scope of the quantitative business has grown.
Graeme McCrodan became a business owner in 2025. Graeme joined the firm in 2012 as an analyst on the Investment Process Management (IPM) team, moving to the research team a few years later. Over the course of his tenure, Graeme has led increasingly complex research projects. He introduced some of our first alpha signals leveraging new techniques to process large, complex datasets. Graeme now leads our research data onboarding effort, which plays a critical role in the research team’s ability to continue to develop unique and valuable strategies.
To support continued growth in international markets, the firm’s pooled fund structures were expanded. This includes our Europe-based UCITS Fund platform for non-US-based investors, a Collective Investment Trust (CIT) platform in the US for ERISA-regulated pension plans, and a Cayman platform for US and other eligible global investors. The investment we have made will allow us to continue to diversify the regional exposure of our client base.
Over the past year, Phil Cotterill, Head of Client Solutions, has been executing on his succession plan, working closely with Calum Mackenzie on all aspects of team leadership. This transition will continue through 2025, with Phil acting in an advisory capacity. Calum joined the firm in 2023, bringing significant experience from prior leadership roles. In 2025, he was appointed to CC&L’s Board of Directors. Phil joined the firm in 1993 as an analyst on the fundamental equity team, later serving 13 years as a portfolio manager before leading the client solutions team. After more than 30 years at CC&L, Phil will retire on December 31, 2025.
The team is proud to be the recipient of a Greenwich Quality Leaders award in Canadian Institutional Investment Management Service Quality for 2024.1 The award recognizes firms that deliver superior levels of client service that help institutional investors achieve their investment goals and objectives.
Last year, we developed several new tools for use in our fundamental equity and fixed income investment processes. These tools include a sector materiality matrix and ESG controversy data monitoring. The focus in 2025 will be on continued integration of these tools into each team’s research process and the monitoring of outcomes to identify areas for further improvement. In 2024, we incorporated carbon metrics for our equity portfolios in our third-quarter reports and plan to extend this reporting to our fixed income portfolios later in 2025.
Assets Under Management
CC&L’s AUM increased by CA$12 billion in 2024 to CA$76 billion as of December 31, 2024. We are pleased to report that our business continued to grow through new client mandates across all investment teams. In 2024, CC&L gained 30 new clients and 10 additional mandates from existing clients totaling CA$8 billion. Most new mandates were for quantitative equity strategies from global institutional investors.
We sincerely appreciate the trust and support of our clients and business partners. We look forward to continuing to help you achieve your investment objectives in the years ahead.
1From February through September 2024, Coalition Greenwich conducted interviews with 115 of the largest tax-exempt funds in Canada. Senior fund professionals were asked to provide quantitative and qualitative evaluations of their investment managers, assessments of those managers soliciting their business, and detailed information on important market trends. CC&L did not provide Coalition Greenwich with any compensation for this survey.
Crestpoint is pleased to announce the appointment of Scott Antoniak as our new Executive Vice President and Head of Investments. Bringing with him over 30 years of experience in all facets of the real estate industry, he has been involved in deal origination, underwriting and transaction execution, and oversaw significant portfolio growth and expansion in his previous roles.
Scott has held several senior roles over his career including Executive Director of Real Estate Investment Banking at CIBC Capital Markets, Managing Director at Slate Asset Management and CEO of Slate Office REIT. Reporting directly to Kevin Leon, President and CEO, and working alongside the rest of the Crestpoint senior leadership team, Scott will focus on leading our Investment team and growing our portfolio of real estate assets. His expertise and leadership will be invaluable as we enhance our direction, agility, and effective execution.
In the latest episode of The Private Equity Podcast, Jeff Wigle, Managing Director and Group Head at Banyan Capital Partners, shares his insights and expertise on transitioning portfolio companies for growth. Jeff emphasizes the importance of long-term value creation, leveraging technology and managing cultural change to avoid common private equity pitfalls and make data-driven decisions.
2024 marked a year of record growth for CC&L Infrastructure across our portfolio, team and client base.
CC&L Infrastructure deployed a record ~$600 million in 2024, all relating to opportunities sourced on a bilateral basis outside of broad auction processes. The new investments span the renewable energy, transportation and social infrastructure segments, and include our first investment in the student housing sector. The additions expanded the size of our infrastructure portfolio to over 100 assets, diversified across sectors and primarily located in North America.
Sharp Hills Wind FarmLocated in southeastern Alberta, one of the largest onshore wind farms in Canada with approximately 300 MW of capacity, representing clean energy generation equivalent to the amount of power used by more than 160,000 Alberta homes. |
Twin City TransportationA premier provider of special education transportation services in Minnesota, this investment is an accretive addition to the broader Landmark Student Transportation platform, adding over 250 routes serviced by approximately 175 vehicles. |
Ontario Wind AssetsTwo southern Ontario-based wind projects, Armow Wind and Grand Renewable Wind, together totaling approximately 330 MW in gross capacity and generating energy equivalent to the annual consumption of nearly 290,000 Ontarians. |
Northside Student HousingFour student housing facilities situated at the University of Texas at Dallas. Facilities were built between 2016 and 2021 and comprise ~1,200 units with the capacity to house >2,500 students. Northside’s long-term land leases with the university have an average of over 50 years remaining. |
CC&L Infrastructure seeks to invest in high-quality, North American middle-market infrastructure assets that deliver essential services and create value for stakeholders, including our clients, partners and the local communities in which our projects are located.
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CC&L Infrastructure invests in middle-market infrastructure assets with attractive risk-return characteristics, long lives and the potential to generate stable cash flows. To date, CC&L Infrastructure has accumulated over $7 billion4 in assets under management diversified across a variety of geographies, sectors and asset types, with more than 100 underlying facilities across over 35 individual investments. CC&L Infrastructure is a part of Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group Ltd., a multi-boutique asset management firm whose affiliates collectively manage over $139 billion in assets.
For more information on Connor, Clark & Lunn Infrastructure’s strategy, portfolio and investment criteria, contact:
| INVESTMENT ORIGINATION AND EXECUTION | ||
Matt O’Brien President |
Ryan Lapointe Transportation |
David Chatburn Energy |
Eric Reidel Energy |
Andrew Parkes Digital |
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| INVESTOR RELATIONS | |
Kaitlin Blainey Managing Director |
Sonja Weiss Vice President |
1. Represents growth in the mark-to-market value of capital invested by CC&L Infrastructure and its clients, including principal investments and co-investments, plus CC&L Infrastructure’s share of associated debt at December 31, 2024.
2. Performance history for the CC&L Infrastructure Strategy is that of the CC&L Infrastructure Composite, which comprises performance of the Private Client Infrastructure Pooled Fund series, CC&L Institutional Infrastructure Pooled Fund series and CC&L Taxable Institutional Infrastructure Pooled Fund series. The Composite has a creation date of March 2014 and inception date of September 2011.
3. Primarily 20-to-40-year contracts with government or other creditworthy counterparties. Many contracts also include beneficial features including take-or-pay arrangements and inflation linkages.
4. Represents the mark-to-market value of capital invested by CC&L Infrastructure and its clients, including principal investments and co-investments, plus CC&L Infrastructure’s share of associated debt at December 31, 2024.
Unless otherwise stated, all data is at December 31, 2024 and stated in Canadian dollars (CAD). Source: Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group Ltd. This material, including any attachments, is provided to you for your informational purposes only and is considered private and confidential. This material is intended for the use of the recipient only and no matter contained herein may be used, disseminated, distributed, reproduced or copied by any means, in whole or in part without express prior written consent of CC&L Infrastructure. Certain information contained herein is based on information obtained from third-party sources that CC&L Infrastructure considers to be reliable. While we consider such information to be reliable, CC&L Infrastructure makes no representation as to, and accepts no responsibility for, the accuracy, fairness or completeness of such information produced by third parties and contained herein. Past performance is not a guide to future performance, future returns are not guaranteed, and a loss of capital may occur. All opinions, estimates and projections contained in this material constitute CC&L Infrastructure’s judgment as of the date of this material, are subject to change without notice. This material has been prepared without regard to the particular individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it and nothing in this material constitutes legal, accounting, tax or individually tailored investment advice. As such, as you consider this material, you should consult with independent professionals in those areas regarding your individual circumstances. This information is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities and is not to be used as a sales communication.
2024 marked another landmark year for Banyan Capital Partners. We continued on our journey of strategic growth, adding new investments and delivering long-term value to our investors.
 to Director |
 to Partner |
 to Principal |
|---|---|---|
 to Vice President |
 to Associate |
 to Associate |
 has joined as Senior Analyst |
 has joined as Analyst |
 has joined as Accountant |
These promotions and additions reflect our culture of professional growth and recognizing the contributions of our team members. Our team’s development is integral to our ongoing success and capacity for identifying and nurturing promising investment opportunities and growing our investment portfolio.
Learn more about our team and their roles.
Founded in 1984, Stagevision provides a range of services in professional audiovisual production and management, including the assembly of sets and soft goods products, short-term rental of audiovisual equipment, and simultaneous interpretation services to businesses and related agencies across both Canada and the United States.
We’ve partnered with the Company’s CEO, Scott Tomlinson, who has served in this role since 2021, to execute on the business’s next phase of both organic and M&A-driven growth.
In November 2024, Oakcreek was pleased to announce the promotion of Patrick Nolan to President and CEO. Patrick was formerly CFO of the business and will be succeeding Barrie Carpenter who will serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
In January 2024, Second Nature was pleased to announce the appointment of Guido Romagnoli to the position of President and CEO. Guido was formerly COO of Hunter Amenities International, a global manufacturer of health and beauty products.
Learn more about our current investment portfolio.
As we move into 2025, our focus remains on identifying new investments in middle-market businesses across North America while maintaining our commitment to long-term value creation. We will continue to leverage our expertise and network to foster strategic partnerships, ensuring sustainable success for our portfolio companies and investors.
We continue to actively seek to invest in businesses with EBITDA of at least $5 million.
Do you have an opportunity in mind? Explore our investment criteria or connect with us today.
We’re honoured to have to be recognized as a 2024 Greenwich Leader in Institutional Investment Management Service Quality. This is our fourth time earning this award in a decade, a testament to our Client Solutions Team embodying our mission statement with “the commitment and desire to provide superior performance and service to our clients.” This would not have been possible without the commitment of the entire firm – investment teams, operations teams and all our support colleagues – we thank you all!
*From February through September 2024, Coalition Greenwich conducted interviews with 115 of the largest tax-exempt funds in Canada. Senior fund professionals were asked to provide quantitative and qualitative evaluations of their investment managers, assessments of those managers soliciting their business, and detailed information on important market trends. CC&L did not provide Coalition Greenwich with any compensation for this survey. For further information on performance, please contact us at [email protected].
SK Capital Partners announced the recent acquisition of Spectra Confectionery Limited, continuing their focus on the food ingredients sector. Debt funding for the deal was provided by MidStar Capital.
Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group (CC&LFG) is pleased to announce that Jean-Philippe Lemay is joining its leadership team as a Managing Director, effective January 6, 2025.
Jean-Philippe’s responsibilities will include oversight of its global institutional distribution and marketing teams, as well as providing a broad leadership presence for CC&LFG in Quebec.
Prior to joining CC&LFG, Jean-Philippe spent 13 years with Fiera Capital, where he built its Liability Driven Investment Solution business before rising to the position of Chief Executive Officer. Jean-Philippe’s credentials include a BSc in Actuarial Sciences from Université Laval and an MSc in Financial Mathematics from Stanford University. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (FCIA).
“We are thrilled to welcome Jean-Philippe to our firm,” said Warren Stoddart, CEO of CC&LFG. “He is an accomplished individual with deep experience and proven leadership skills who will be an invaluable addition to our leadership team. An individual of his caliber located in our Montreal office is an important step in the further development of our presence in Quebec in the years ahead.”
“I am honoured to join CC&LFG and look forward to helping shape the firm’s future development,” said Jean-Philippe Lemay. “CC&LFG is undeniably a success story in Canada’s financial services industry, having quietly grown to become one of the country’s largest independent asset management firms. Its affiliated businesses, including Global Alpha Capital Management, Baker Gilmore & Associates and CC&L Private Capital, have established a significant presence among institutional and high-net-worth clients in the province. I look forward to collaborating with the talented team at CC&LFG to build on this success and drive continued growth both locally and globally.”
CC&LFG and its affiliates manage over $135 billion in assets across a range of traditional and alternative investment strategies from offices in Canada, the US, the UK and India.
For more information, please contact:
Stephanie Wei
Senior Manager
Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group
416-823-2954
[email protected]
Crestpoint is excited to announce the appointment of Lindsay Stiles as Crestpoint’s new co-Chief Operating Officer (co-COO). With over 20 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, Lindsay brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in operations, asset management, finance, leasing, and brokerage.
Lindsay has held several senior roles throughout her career, including COO of Slate Office REIT and Managing Director at Colliers International. Reporting directly to our President and CEO, Kevin Leon, and working alongside our current COO, Colin MacKellar, Lindsay will focus on operations and business systems, compliance, human resources, and client service. Lindsay’s addition to our team will help us maintain focus, agility, and effective execution as we continue to grow.