New Brunswick·NewThe company that manages billions of dollars in pension funds for thousands of New Brunswick public-sector employees and retirees is being accused of causing financial losses for hundreds of investors across Canada.Shareholders in failed electronics company say Vestcor-owned company inflated value of mergerJacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: Dec 01, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 30 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Fredericton-based Vestcor Inc. and one of its senior executives are the targets of a petition filed in British Columbia that is seeking court approval for a class-action lawsuit. Pictured is the building that houses the company’s offices. (Tara King-Stewart/CBC)The company that manages billions of dollars in pension funds for thousands of New Brunswick public sector employees and retirees is being accused of causing financial losses for hundreds of investors across Canada.Fredericton-based Vestcor Inc. and one of its senior executives are the targets of a petition filed in British Columbia that is seeking court approval for a class-action lawsuit.The company is accused of falsely inflating the value of a corporate merger between two technology companies.Vestcor invests the pension contributions of New Brunswick civil servants and other public sector employees in various investment vehicles, including stocks.According to the petition application, Vestcor was the majority shareholder in Exro Technologies, and “orchestrated and significantly influenced” Exro’s 2024 merger with SEA Electric Inc., in which Vestcor also owned shares.WATCH | ‘A lot of people lost a lot of money’:Shareholders pursue lawsuit against N.B. pension fund manager over lossesInvestors allege Vestcor Inc. misled them on value of merger, leading to millions of dollars in losses.Exro paid $300 million to acquire SEA Electric after telling its shareholders that SEA would make $200 million in profits in 2024 — a figure that proved “delusional,” the court filing says.“These facts and circumstances reflected within those representations were the basis of the grossly inflated valuation assigned to SEA Electric,” it says.“Those purported facts and circumstances did not exist, or the manner of their representation in the material change report was false or misleading.”Sage Nematollahi, the lawyer who filed the petition on behalf of two shareholders, told CBC News that Vestcor ‘has lost a lot of money.’ (Zoom)It alleges Vestcor and its vice-president of equities Mark Holleran “did so in order to manage, or salvage, their significant investment in SEA Electric.”The assertions in the petition have not been proven in court and Vestcor has yet to file a response.“Our legal team is currently evaluating the merits of this lawsuit,” CEO Sean Hewitt said in an emailed statement.“The claims have not been tested in court,” he added. “We have no reason to believe in their veracity.”Sage Nematollahi, the lawyer who filed the petition on behalf of two shareholders, told CBC News that Vestcor “has lost a lot of money” as Exro’s majority shareholder, tying up “significant funds from pensioners in New Brunswick [with] this investment that has not done great.” But in Hewitt’s statement, he said the impact was “negligible” to the overall performance of Vestcor’s investment portfolios, estimating it at a fraction of one per cent of the total.“Given the robust funded positions of our clients’ pension plans, and continued strong investment performance, there is no impact to the monthly income of pensioners,” he said.The company managed a total of $23 billion in 2024 — an increase of $2 billion over 2023.Vestcor, owned by the province’s two largest pension plans for civil servants and teachers, was created in 2016, replacing a government-owned agency.It handles retirement plans for hospital workers, nurses, Crown corporation employees, provincial court judges, MLAs and others. It also manages other investment funds, including the University of New Brunswick’s endowment. Exro was delisted by the Toronto Stock Exchange in October.The company revealed in November 2024 that its revenue projections would fall far short of what it had claimed, recording a loss of $226 million, including a $211 million loss to the value of SEA Electric’s assets.The losses led to “the complete collapse” of Exro, the filing says.The petition alleges that Vestcor and Holleran “acted in bad faith and/or conflicts of interest” as “de facto directors and/or officers” of Exro.The petition was filed by two shareholders, British Columbia resident Bryan Irwin, who held $22,000 worth of shares at the time of the merger, and Ontario investor Mike Zienchuk, who had $4 million in shares.Nematollahi told CBC News that about 500 other shareholders have contacted his office about joining the lawsuit if it is certified as a class action case.“There could be thousands of shareholders out there,” he said.Zienchuk and another investor, Allan Crosier, have also filed a lawsuit in Alberta against Exro, two former company officials, the company’s financial advisors and its insurance underwriters.Exro billed itself as a clean tech company that would design and build power electronics to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Vestcor was a majority shareholder in Exro at the time of the merger and also held 14.3 per cent of preferred stock in SEA, meaning Vestcor was “acting both as a seller and a buyer,” the filing says. ABOUT THE AUTHORJacques Poitras has been CBC’s provincial affairs reporter in New Brunswick since 2000. He grew up in Moncton and covered Parliament in Ottawa for the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. He has reported on every New Brunswick election since 1995 and won awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, the National Newspaper Awards and Amnesty International. He is also the author of five non-fiction books about New Brunswick politics and history.
N.B. pension fund managers accused of costing tech investors millions in B.C. lawsuit
