China, US promise better protection for business secrets following annual trade meeting + MORE Nov 24th

SAN DIEGO – The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is teaming with a private equity group in a US$4.6-billion takeover Petco Animal Supplies Inc., a California-based specialty retailer of premium pet food, supplies and services.
Under the deal, the CPPIB and CVC Capital Partners will jointly acquire the company from a group of investors led by TPG and Leonard Green & Partners.
The acquisition is expected to close in early 2016.
Based in San Diego, Petco operates more than 1,400 locations across the United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico, along with an e-commerce platform.
Shane Feeney, managing director and head of direct private equity for CPPIB, said the investment “aligns well with CPPIB’s strategy to invest in leading retail businesses with strong omnichannel capabilities.”
“We look forward to working alongside one of our long-standing partners, CVC, to leverage our collective retail expertise in helping to build further value in the business,” Feeney said…

BEIJING, China – U.S. and Chinese envoys have promised closer co-operation on protecting business secrets following two days of trade talks but gave no indication of progress toward a long-awaited investment treaty.
The two governments said Tuesday they also agreed to work more closely on food security and combating illegal logging and wildlife trafficking at the annual meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade.
The two sides promised to strengthen protection of business secrets, a sensitive issue for U.S. companies that accuse Beijing of failing to do enough to stop patent and copyright violations.
The governments gave no indication of progress on a broader investment treaty American business groups hope will improve conditions for them in China.
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CALGARY – A day after the Alberta government unveiled its plan to tackle climate change, Alberta’s pension fund manager is investing $200 million in green energy.
Alberta Investment Management Corp., which has $85 billion in assets under management, is investing $200 million in TransAlta Renewables, an affiliate of power producer TransAlta Corp. (TSX:TA).
“TransAlta has set forth a bold transition plan that will see it become one of North America’s pre-eminent clean power companies,” said AIMCo CEO Kevin Uebelein.
“TransAlta Renewables is an important part of that strategy. AIMCo is looking forward to a strong working relationship with TransAlta Renewables.”
Once the deal closes, TransAlta Corp. will own 65 per cent of TransAlta Renewables and AIMCo will own eight per cent.
AIMCo invests globally on behalf of 27 pension, endowment and government funds in Alberta, but operates at arms-length from the provincial government.
Part of the Alberta government’s sweeping climate change plan unveiled Sunday involves the phase-out of the province’s coal-fired power by 2030…

Learn, save, invest and prosper with My Own Advisor.
In this article, I’m going to compare life insurance company segregated funds against mutual funds for investment purposes within a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP).  Segregated funds can be a viable investment alternative for RESPs that many investors don’t consider, this post will help you do that.
For background, segregated funds or “seg funds” are mutual fund clones offered by life insurance companies.  However, seg funds provide a guarantee on your capital/deposits over mutual funds.  For example with some seg funds, after 10 years if your investments crash, the life insurance company guarantees at a minimum that you’ll have all of your deposits back. This guarantee typically comes in the form of higher fund fee costs (and thus lower earnings).
Seg funds are not normally advocated (well, not by some consumer advocates anyway) as a good choice for retirement planning.  The long time frames involved with retirement planning mean the higher (expected) returns that come with mutual funds are likely a better choice…

Relatively low starting salaries – many in the $50,000 range – mean it takes decades for PhD graduates to close the earnings gap between them and someone with an MA