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They are among the world’s most famous landlords with stakes in major airports in Europe, luxury retailers in New York and transportation hubs in South America. They rank as five of the top 30 global real estate investors, seven of the world’s biggest international infrastructure investors, and were at the table during six of the top 100 leveraged buyouts in corporate history. And they are Canadian.

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The country’s eight largest public pension funds, which collectively manage net assets worth more than $1 trillion, have acquired so much heft in the past decade that they are being lauded in international financial circles as the new “masters of the universe.” Their clout has caught the attention of major Wall Street investment firms angling for their business, as well as institutional investors around the world that are emulating their investing model.

“Canada’s public-sector pension plans are high profile, widely admired and they’re certainly bigger than they used to be,” said Malcolm Hamilton, a pension expert and senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto.

A veteran Bay Street denizen, who asked not to be named because his firm has business dealings with many of the funds, added: “Asset by asset, around the world by virtue of their investments through ownership or partnership, they are as much economic ambassadors for Canada as anybody.”