More Challenges for Maple Leaf Foods

A media report has revealed that the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan intends to sell its shares in Maple Leaf Foods. Teachers has a 35.3-per-cent stake in the food giant worth $450 million.

The announcement caused shares of Maple Leaf to fall more than three per cent this morning to $9.13 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Teachers paired with the McCain family in the mid-1990s to support a takeover of Maple Leaf. Teachers is one of the world’s largest private equity investors. With $87.4 billion in net assets by the end of 2009, it is the largest single-profession pension plan in Canada.