Canada Pension Plan, Ottawa, had a 16.5% gross investment return for its 2014 fiscal year ended March 31, according to the annual report of the CPP Investment Board, which manages the pension plan.
CPP had C$219.1 billion (US$201.6 billion) in assets as of March 31, up 19.5% from 12 months earlier, with C$30.1 billion coming from investment returns and C$5.7 billion from contributions, according to the annual report, which was released Friday.
Its five-year annualized real rate of return as of March 31 was 9.7%, and its 10-year real return rate was 5.1%.
The highest gains for the latest fiscal year were in private equity. Emerging markets private equity returned 36.8%; international developed markets private equity, 35.1%; and Canadian private equity, 30.1%.
In public equity investments, international developed markets returned 26.3%; Canadian equities, 15.6%; and emerging markets, 5.8%
Real estate returned 18%, while infrastructure returned 16.6%.
The plan’s lowest returning portfolio was non-marketable bonds, accounting for 10.6% of CPP’s assets, with a loss of 0.1%. Linda Sims, CPPIB spokeswoman, said the portfolio contains the legacy Canadian government bonds held by the pension fund since CPP was created in 1999 and must be held for their duration.
As of March 31, the plan’s asset allocation was 48.7% equities — 34.5% international developed market, 8.5% Canadian and 5.7% emerging markets — 33.6% fixed income, 11.6% real estate and 6.1% infrastructure.
The annual report is on the CPPIB website.
