'No-hydrocarbon world is dreamland:' AIMCo CEO Evan Siddall on investment opportunities in 2024
financialpost.comPensions plans made the political headlines in 2023 like seldom before, from Alberta’s threat to pull out of the Canada Pension Plan with more than half of the fund’s assets to Ottawa’s desire, stated in the fall fiscal update, to have the globetrotting trillion-dollar asset managers invest more at home. The Financial Post spoke to Alberta Investment Management Corp. chief executive Evan Siddall about these issues, geopolitics and how AIMCo is evolving its investment strategy for 2024 and beyond. This interview has been edited and condensed for space.
Financial Post:
Evan Siddall: I’m worried about things going wrong in the world. Geopolitics. I’m worried about the Middle East and Iran being drawn into a proxy war. And how does Israel exit from this? It doesn’t have cooperative neighbours, we know that. And what happens in Ukraine? If it’s going to end with Russia having annexed Crimea and the whole Donbas region, the lines of Ukraine will be redrawn. And then the rebuilding of Ukraine will have to occur, and who knows how that’s going to happen. Will Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy be alive or not? And then the complete imponderable is what does that all mean for China and Taiwan? I worry a lot about all this stuff. And how to position the portfolio accordingly.
FP:
ES: I actually think the U.S. economy will prove to be more resilient, and there’s a real productivity gain to be had there. I believe the AI hype. So I don’t share the fears of a moribund U.S. economy — except who knows what happens with the election on Nov. 5, right?
FP:
ES: Canada is a pretty darn good place to invest. We do have substantial investments in Canada, 44 per cent, I think, at last check. And Canada is attracting interest from
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