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TORONTO (CP)--A pension plan for Ontario teachers announced a $2.3-billion deal Wednesday to buy Cadillac Fairview Corp., one of North America's biggest property developers.
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board said it will pay $34 a share in cash for the roughly 78 per cent of Cadillac Fairview it doesn't already own.
It's the latest in a series of high-profile real estate acquisitions by Canada's richest pension funds, which want to invest in stable commercial properties for the long haul.
"We tend to acquire valuable properties and keep them because they are well-matched to the needs of the pension plan over the long term," said Claude Lamoureux, chief executive of the $60-billion teachers' plan, which already owns 21.8 per cent of Cadillac Fairview and is the Canadian company's biggest shareholder.
The fund, which pays benefits to 300,000 active and retired Ontario teachers, is one of Canada's largest pools of capital and began buying real estate in 1991, just after the collapse of the commercial market during the last recession.
Cadillac Fairview, one of Canada's best-known developers, is the pension fund's biggest investment.
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