CPPIB Head of Private Equity Jumps to Northleaf Capital Partners

Shane Feeney

Shane Feeney, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB)’s senior managing director and global head of private equity, is leaving the C$497.2 billion (US$404.4 billion) pension giant after 11 years to become global head of secondaries at Toronto-based Northleaf Capital Partners.

CPPIB said it is currently conducting an assessment of potential candidates to replace Feeney, and that appointments will be made “in due course.” In his new role at Northleaf, Feeney will oversee the private markets investment firm’s secondaries program.

“I want to thank Shane for his tremendous contribution to CPP Investments,” John Graham, president and CEO of CPPIB, said in a statement. “For the past 11 years, Shane has had a significant impact on growing our private equity program to be a key part of our diversified investment strategy.”

Feeney leads the teams that have been responsible for CPPIB’s direct private equity, Asia private equity, private equity funds, and secondaries investments. Under his leadership, CPPIB’s private equity program assets under management (AUM) grew by approximately C$73.6 billion, and in fiscal 2021 the private equity program earned a net return of 36.3%.

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A start date for Feeney has not yet been announced, but a spokesperson for Northleaf Capital told CIO he will join the company later this summer. He will report to Northleaf Managing Director and Co-Founder Michael Flood, who leads the company’s global private equity program.

“As GP [general partner]-led continuation vehicles, single company secondaries, and other structured transactions have become a greater part of the broader secondaries market, Shane’s principal investment expertise and leadership will complement our existing direct private equity strategy and team,” Flood said in a statement. “We recognized early on that GP-led secondary transactions, especially single-asset acquisitions, require differentiated investment skills in order to be successful as the secondary market continues to evolve.”

Feeney joined CPPIB in 2010 from Bridgepoint Capital Ltd. in London, and prior to that was a partner and founding member of Hermes Private Equity’s direct investing business. He also served as an associate director at Morgan Grenfell Private Equity in London, and has served as a director of Livingston International, 99 Cents Only Stores, The Gates Corporation, and Air Distribution Technologies. He earned a bachelor’s in economics from Dartmouth College and an Master of Business Administration from INSEAD.

Northleaf manages more than C$9 billion of private equity commitments in pooled funds and separately managed accounts within three investment strategies: secondaries, directs, and solutions. The firm launched its secondaries program in 2003, and has invested more than C$3 billion in private market secondary transactions. Overall, Northleaf has US$16 billion in private equity, private credit, and infrastructure commitments under management.

“Northleaf is a world-class global private markets investment manager with extensive secondaries experience and a strong growth trajectory, particularly in light of its recent strategic partnership with Power Corporation affiliates Mackenzie Financial and Great-West Lifeco,” Feeney said in a statement.

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Tags: Bridgepoint Capital, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, CPPIB, Hermes Private Equity, John Graham, Northleaf Capital Partners, Private Equity, secondaries, Shane Feeney, Stuart Waugh

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has obtained an asset freeze in an effort to stop an alleged “cherry-picking” scheme in which a Miami-based investment adviser is accused of channeling millions of dollars in trading profits to preferred accounts believed to be held by his parents. The SEC also filed fraud charges against the investment adviser, Ramiro Jose Sugranes.

According to the SEC’s unsealed complaint, which was filed in the Southern District of Florida, Sugranes has allegedly been conducting a scam for more than five years in which he has diverted profitable trades to two accounts believed to be held by his parents, while dumping losing trades with other clients. Sugranes conducted the alleged fraud through investment firms UCB Financial Advisers Inc. and UCB Financial Services Limited, where he is a part owner and executive director, respectively.

“This scheme is ongoing,” the regulator said in the complaint. “The SEC brings this enforcement action to stop this fraud and return the ill-gotten gains to the harmed investors.”

The SEC says Sugranes has been carrying out the cherry-picking scheme by using an average price trading account to purchase stocks and options on behalf of client accounts. He then allegedly allocates those trades to specific accounts, typically later that day. If the position increases in value during that day, the position is usually closed out to lock in the same-day profit. In those cases, the corresponding profits are allocated to so-called “preferred accounts” that are held by an elderly couple who are presumed to be either Sugranes’ parents or close relatives, who were also named as relief defendants.

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According to the complaint, the alleged scheme funneled approximately $4.6 million in illicit profits to the preferred accounts, and negatively impacted at least 75 non-preferred accounts that took first day losses. The SEC says the non-preferred accounts were allocated more than $5.5 million of first day losses, and that 16 of them suffered more than $25,000 in first day losses, with two sustaining more than $1 million in first day losses. The agency added that the odds that random chance could account for this difference in first-day profits and losses is less than one in a billion.

The regulator said the investigation originated from its Market Abuse Unit’s Analysis and Detection Center, which uses data analysis tools to detect suspicious patterns, such as improbably successful trading.

“The SEC uses sophisticated analytical tools to ferret out investment professionals who abuse their positions to engage in cherry-picking and other fraudulent conduct,” Joseph Sansone, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Market Abuse Unit, said in a statement.

The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions and a conduct-based injunction against Sugranes, as well as disgorgement of Sugranes and the relief defendants’ ill-gotten gains from the unlawful activity alleged in the complaint.

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Tags: Ramiro Jose Sugranes, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission cherry picking, UCB Financial Advisers Inc., UCB Financial Services