Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Toronto, sold about 74% of its shares, valued at US$1.2 billion, in BlackRock iShares MSCI Emerging Market Index ETF in the first quarter, according to an SEC filing Tuesday.
The C$140.8 billion (US$129.2 billion) pension fund held 34.7 million shares of the ETF valued at US$1.533 billion as of Dec. 31. The ETF was its largest single corporate-share holding at the time, according to OTPP's website.
As of March 31, OTPP held 9.5 million shares in the iShares ETF, according to the SEC filing.
Also in the first quarter, the pension fund purchased 2.16 million shares in Invesco PowerShares QQQ, an ETF that replicates the Nasdaq 100 index. The market value of those shares totaled $189 million, according to data from Bloomberg.
Deborah Allan, OTPP spokeswoman, said the pension fund would not comment on the changes. “In a fund our size, a lot of change happens throughout the year,” she said, adding that the pension fund reports on its investments annually.
