Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will acquire a 17.5-per-cent stake in Telecom Italia’s landline network NetCo. The pension fund is part of a group of investors led by New York-based firm KKR that is purchasing NetCo. The deal values the business at about $27.5 billion. (The Logic)

Talking point: The investor group, which includes the Italian government, plans to drive efficiencies in NetCo and upgrade the network’s existing copper infrastructure with fibre-based services, CPP Investments said in a press release. The pension fund—which manages about $590 billion in assets—has been increasing its global investments, including in Europe where its holdings in the region accounted for 18 per cent of its portfolio in 2023, up from 9.5 per cent 10 years earlier. Meanwhile, its share of Canadian assets dropped from 36.7 per cent in 2013 to 14 per cent last year. While the fund has touted its regional diversification as a reason for its stable long-term returns, Canadian pension funds are under increasing pressure to invest more at home.