Market Woes Erase 20% of Asset Value at Billionaires Desmarais’ Firm

  • PE group Sagard was valued below C$1 billion at year-end
  • ‘It was not a year of high investor confidence,’ CEO Orr says

Paul Desmarais III

Photographer: Christinne Muschi/Bloomberg
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The holding company of Canada’s billionaire Desmarais family saw its net asset value slide 20% last year, as its private equity and insurance businesses suffered from volatility in global equity and bond markets.

Power Corp. of Canada said its investments were worth about C$28 billion ($20.4 billion) at the end of December, or C$41.91 per share. The decline erased almost all of the prior year’s gains.