ALLETE

ALLETE

The ALLETE & Affiliated Companies Retiree Health Plan B was established in 1994 as a defined benefit plan to provide medical and dental benefits to retired union employees of ALLETE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. The plan is headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota, where the parent company, an energy holding firm with operations including Minnesota Power and BNI Coal, maintains its corporate offices. Bethany M. Owen serves as the Chair, President, and CEO of the parent entity. The plan's investment strategy is structured as a fund-of-funds approach, allocating across multiple underlying vehicles. While specific asset-class exposures and manager relationships are not publicly detailed, the plan's small estimated asset base of $77 million (Altss estimate) constrains direct co-investment capabilities, making a multi-manager structure practical for diversification. The parent company, prior to its acquisition, held significant real assets including real estate holdings in Florida — Town Center at Palm Coast and Palm Coast Park — and Minnesota land, alongside the BNI Coal lignite mine. The parent company, ALLETE, Inc., was acquired in a landmark $6.2 billion transaction announced in 2024 and completed in 2025 by a partnership of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Global Infrastructure Partners (per the firm, 2025). GIP is part of BlackRock. This acquisition placed ALLETE's energy utilities and real asset portfolio under new infrastructure-focused ownership. The retiree health plan, while a separate legal entity, now exists within this changed corporate oversight structure. The plan's structural differentiator is its position as a legacy benefit obligation now housed under an infrastructure-owner consortium. Unlike standalone pension systems or sovereign funds, its investment posture is inseparable from the parent company's acquisition and the long-term stewardship of CPP Investments and BlackRock's GIP platform, who typically prioritize long-duration, inflation-linked asset performance.