Alberta Investment Management Corp., Edmonton, returned a net 14.7% in 2021, outperforming its composite benchmark return of 8%.
The firm described the 2021 results as "the strongest year in AIMCo's history" in a news release Wednesday. A spokesman for the company said by email that "14.7% is our highest absolute return at the total fund level."
The firm's total assets amounted to C$168.3 billion ($133.8 billion) at the end of the year.
Over the four- and 10-year periods through Dec. 31, AIMCo delivered annualized net returns of 7.4% and 8.6%, respectively, versus corresponding benchmark returns of 7% and 7.9%, the firm said in the release.
AIMCo noted the investment return information applied to C$138.1 billion of its total assets and excluded C$30.1 billion of assets transferred from the Alberta Teachers' Retirement Fund, Alberta Health Services and the Workers' Compensation Board-Alberta in 2021 that "have not yet met the required conditions for inclusion in AIMCo's value-add as at Dec. 31, 2021."
Within asset classes, private equity was the top performer in 2021, scoring a 65.9% return, the release noted. Public equities (23.4%), infrastructure (19.0%), renewable resources (15.0%), and real estate (14.5%) rounded out the other best performing asset classes. Only money market-fixed income fell into the red, returning -1.1% for the year.
As of Dec. 31, 2021, the fund's asset allocation comprised 37.6% in public equities, 35.0% in money market-fixed income, 13.2% in real estate, 7.7% in infrastructure, 5.9% in private equity and the remainder in renewable resources, based on figures provided in the release.
"Delivering record investment returns is a tremendous accomplishment made possible by our in-house asset management expertise," stated Evan Siddall, chief executive officer, in the release.
AIMCo delivered a net return of 2.5% in 2020, 5.4 percentage points below its benchmark, the firm noted in a separate news release issued on April 15, 2021.
AIMCo invests globally on behalf of 32 pension, endowment and government funds in Alberta.
