Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, Montreal, said Friday it returned 6.7% on its investments in the first six months of the year.
The performance was just under its 6.8% customized benchmark return for the same period.
Caisse, which oversees investments for Quebec pension and other government funds, had total assets as of June 30 of C$214.7 billion (US$196.9 billion), up 7.2% from the start of 2014, spurred by a net C$13.3 billion from investments and C$1.3 billion in contributions.
In a conference call Friday, Michael Sabia, president and CEO, attributed the investment gains to a strong U.S. economy, generally improved world markets and better performance from Canadian equities.
For the six months ended June 30, Caisse’s equity portfolio returned 8.8%; fixed-income, 3.5%; and inflation-sensitive investments (real estate, infrastructure and real-return bonds), 4.7%. Caisse does not break out returns on other investments, which include hedge funds, commodities and overlay strategies.
Caisse’s allocation as of June 30 was 47% equity, 36% fixed income, 16% inflation-sensitive investments and 1% other.
Annualized returns for the four years ended June 30 for the Caisse were 11.1% overall; 13.7% for equities; 5.6% for fixed income and 13.3% for inflation-sensitive investments.
