Pension Pulse

James Bradshaw of the Globe and Mail reports OMERS reports $4.9-billion gain as private assets offset public-market losses: The chief executive officer of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System sees opportunities for pension fund managers in a difficult environment marked by higher interest rates after returns from private assets helped keep the plan’s returns buoyant at 4.2 per cent in 2022. OMERS reported $4.9-billion in investment gains last year and boosted its assets in spite of losses on public-market investments. After a volatile year for economies and markets that the pension fund’s leaders described as “exceptionally challenging,” CEO Blake Hutcheson said in an interview Monday that 2023 is likely to remain “a complicated time.” But he said that a period of high employment and elevated interest rates also offers some possible upside for pension funds that can invest in securities such as bonds or in private credit at higher returns than have been avail...

Stéphane Rolland of The Canadian Press reports Quebec's public pension fund reports loss of 5.6 % in 2022: Quebec's public pension fund manager, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, reported a loss of 5.6 per cent in 2022 — a year marked by a simultaneous decrease in both stock and bond markets. Net assets declined by $18 billion to $402 billion as of Dec. 31, according to the results released Thursday. President and CEO Charles Emond stressed that the first half of the year was marked by the worst concurrent correction of stock and bond markets in 50 years. "Facing this abnormal context, all our asset categories succeeded in surpassing their indexes, even though there were very few places to hide for investors." Traditionally, bonds offer a certain protection against stock market corrections in a diversified portfolio, but the scale of interest rate hikes sent the bond market downward last year. The loss of 5.6 per cent is better than the 8.3 per cen...