The real estate arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) closes the door to any possibility of investing in one or other of Groupe Sélection’s seniors’ residences, which are currently undergoing financial restructuring.
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On the occasion of the presentation of the financial results for the year 2022, the CEO of Ivanhoe Cambridge, Nathalie Palladitcheff, clarified Thursday that the real estate subsidiary of the Caisse does not currently hold any investment in this particular niche.
And, that despite the opportunities presented by the “monetization process” put in place by the controller (PricewaterhouseCoppers), the Caisse’s real estate subsidiary had no intention of taking advantage of them to carve out a place for itself.
“We are not positioned in residences for the elderly, we have no investments in this sector,” she replied, specifying that the only investments that the Caisse holds in this sector come from its infrastructure portfolio.
“Our interest [chez Ivanhoe Cambridge] is more about more traditional housing, she continued, or student housing. But not on residences for the elderly which involve other dimensions, in particular operational, on which we are not positioned.
A confidential agreement
Recall that in October 2022, one month before the manager of private residences for seniors (RPA) is sheltered from bankruptcy, by resorting to the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), Ivanhoe Cambridge had signed a letter of intent with Sélection on the possibility of partnerships for multi-residential projects.
The existence of this letter, filed in court in a confidential envelope, had been revealed by The Press on November 18. According to this agreement, the CDPQ would have ensured 85% of the financing of the projects in the form of loans, and the company of Réal Bouclin, 15%.
However, this agreement became null and void as soon as Groupe Sélection took shelter from its creditors on November 14.
No, but… yes
Given what we know today, would Ivanhoe Cambridge be willing, as it was last October, to invest in assets other than RPA in Groupe Sélection’s portfolio?
On this, the real estate arm appeared less refractory to us. By email, in the afternoon, Ivanhoe’s public affairs team had this response:
“Concerning the assets of the Groupe Sélection portfolio, nothing is ruled out for the future. If we decided to invest, it would be mainly in residential projects, including more traditional or student housing.
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