Canada Pension Plan, Ottawa, had a net 18.3% return on investments in the 12 months ended March 31, the plan's fiscal year, 1.3 percentage points above its custom benchmark.
The plan, whose assets are managed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Toronto, had C$264.6 billion ($209.2 billion) as of March 31, up 20.7% from 12 months earlier. Of that increase, C$40.6 billion came from investment income and C$4.9 billion came from contributions, according to a news release from the CPPIB on Thursday.
The fiscal-year return and investment income gain were both one-year records for the plan, Mark Wiseman, the board's president and CEO, said in the news release.
Among its asset classes, private emerging markets equities had the highest return for the latest fiscal year, at 46.8%; followed by private developed markets equities at 30.2%; public emerging markets equities, 24.2%; and public developed markets equities, 23%.
Infrastructure returned 16.5%; real estate, 14.1%; Canadian private equities, 10.1%; and Canadian public equities, 8.9%.
In fixed income, bonds and other money market securities returned 8.8%; non-marketable bonds, 15.4%; and other debt, 18.7%.
As of March 31, CPP's asset allocation was 37% foreign equities, 32.6% fixed income, 11.5% real estate, 7.3% Canadian equities, 5.9% emerging markets equities and 5.7% infrastructure.
Further details are in the pension plan's annual report.
