Canada Pension Plan sees acquisition opportunities

By Pav Jordan

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which bought a U.S, healthcare company in the largest leveraged buyout of the year, sees opportunities ahead, notably in infrastructure and U.S. real estate.

CPPIB and U.S. private equity firm TPG TPG.UL agreed last week to buy prescription drug sales data provider IMS Health Inc (RX.N: Quote) for $4 billion.

The pension fund, together with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, also took an unsuccessful run at Australian toll road operator Transurban Group (TCL.AX: Quote), which spurned their $4.4 billion bid.

"We do see continued opportunities for us to make investments, particularly in the private market, private equity, infrastructure and real estate," CPPIB President and Chief Executive David Denison told Reuters in an interview after the fund's quarterly results were released.

"We have seen infrastructure assets that come available in large part because some of those assets were overleveraged in their existing structures and need fundamentally to be restructured. We think there are more of those that we'll have an opportunity to look at," he said.

"We think there is opportunity in real estate yet to come to the market, particularly in the United States, so we'll be focused on that."

CASH FOR MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS

Flush with cash, CPPIB and other major Canadian pension funds are seen as key players in merger and acquisitions as the world slowly recovers from one of the worst economic crises since the Great Depression.