A Note on IMCO's 2025 Results
The market for private assets has changed but Investment Management Corporation of Ontario chief executive Bert Clark says he isn’t backing away from private equity or private credit in spite of recent pressure on returns.
Toronto-based IMCO earned 7.4 per cent on its investments last year, missing its benchmark by 1.4 percentage points. The bulk of those gains came from its portfolio of publicly traded stocks, which rose in value by 19.1 per cent.
Returns from private assets were muted, in keeping with a trend that has played out with other large investors. IMCO earned 5.1 per cent on infrastructure investments, 6.5 per cent from private equity and 6.7 per cent from its global credit portfolio, according to annual financial results released Thursday.
Real estate posted a modest loss of 0.5 per cent, and is now down an average of 5 per cent annually over the past three years.
Private assets make up roughly half of IMCO’s $91-billion portfolio, and Mr. Clark said he plans to keep it that way. “We still think there’s a role for private markets,” he said in an interview.
But private-market investing “has changed a lot in the last five years,” he added.
The largest institutional investors have gotten bigger, making it hard for smaller funds to compete for deals directly. The cost of financing transactions has gone up. And it is still hard to know the impact of an influx of money from everyday investors into a market that has traditionally been dominated by large, sophisticated funds.
Even so, Mr. Clark said he expects private assets will pay off for investors that partner with the strongest fund managers and avoid the sorts of big, concentrated bets that can blow up in times of market turmoil.
“We think that over the longer term, they provide diversification benefits, the potential for better performance at times – not always, but at times,” he said.
IMCO began operations in 2017, consolidating public-sector fund assets in Ontario, and invests on behalf of eight clients, the largest of which are the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the Ontario Pension Board.
Total assets increased to $90.7-billion, from $86-billion at the end of 2024.
Strong performance from stock markets has propped up earnings for multiple large pension funds.
IMCO’s stock portfolio had a $1-billion windfall from the sale of part of its stake in U.S.-based artificial-intelligence cloud provider CoreWeave Inc.. The pension fund invested US$150-million in CoreWeave in 2023, before the company went public. The partial sale of IMCO’s stake added 77 basis points to its overall return for the year. (There are 100 basis points in a percentage point.)
Otherwise, IMCO has taken a measured approach, including having a large share of its public equities portfolio invested passively, a plan to avoid outsized positions, and a recent boost to holdings of Canadian stocks.
IMCO has followed the same philosophy for private assets, where no portfolio makes up more than 13 per cent of the total fund.
Mr. Clark said the fear gripping private credit appears to revolve mostly around retail investment funds with jittery clients and pockets of direct loans to middle-market companies, especially in the software sector.
IMCO holds a broader credit portfolio with a mix of public and private credit, including lending against infrastructure and real estate.
“We’re not seeing issues in our portfolio at this point,” he said, adding: “Credit is going to have cycles.”
After a jarring period for markets, turbulence has become “a fact of investing,” Mr. Clark said, and he feels “very good” about the fund’s performance in 2025, given the many potential pitfalls it faced that year. Over three years, IMCO’s average annual return is 7.6 per cent.
Those results reflect “our approach to investing, which is to build highly diversified portfolios that are resilient in the face of the inevitable surprises,” he said.
Melissa Shin and Layan Odeh of Bloomberg also report IMCO's CoreWeave bet powers 7.4% annual gain:
Investment Management Corp. of Ontario earned 7.4 per cent last year thanks to strong equity gains and a roughly $1 billion return from trimming its position in artificial intelligence cloud provider CoreWeave Inc.
The pension manager’s stock holdings gained 19.1 per cent in 2025, while private equity rose 6.5 per cent, according to a statement Thursday. Its real estate portfolio lost 0.5 per cent.
CoreWeave added 77 basis points to IMCO’s total net return, contributing more than any other single holding, Chief Investment Officer Rossitsa Stoyanova said in an interview.
IMCO invested $150 million in CoreWeave in 2023. The company’s valuation soared as big technology companies demanded its cloud services to power new AI models, and it went public in March 2025.
“The investment thesis was realized a lot faster than what we expected,” Stoyanova said, noting that IMCO doesn’t usually take big, concentrated positions. “It was a good surprise, but at the same time, we had to trim the position significantly.”
IMCO declined to disclose the size of its current stake in CoreWeave, which Stoyanova referred to as “right sized.” It also has AI-related bets in other data centre providers and fibre networks.
“Regardless of who will be the AI winner, companies that provide services will succeed,” she said.
Last year, the money manager’s assets climbed to $90.7 billion at year-end. The U.S. accounted for 53 per cent of that total, Canada 29 per cent and Europe 12 per cent, largely in line with its 2024 allocation.
IMCO plans to maintain that level of exposure to Canada while boosting its overall assets, the firm said in the statement.
In addition to trimming its CoreWeave stake, IMCO also decreased its U.S. dollar exposure, according to Stoyanova. The U.S. dollar weakened by close to five per cent against the loonie last year, reducing total returns by about 1.5 per cent.
In a January report, the Toronto-based pension cited the Swiss franc, Japanese yen and gold as potential alternatives to the U.S. dollar as U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies pressure the greenback. Canada’s response to U.S. trade pressures — particularly through increased investment in large-scale infrastructure — may broaden domestic investment opportunities, IMCO said at the time.
IMCO was founded in 2016 to consolidate the management of a number of retirement funds for government workers in Canada’s most populous province.
Matt Toledo Chief Investment Officer also reports IMCO Returns 7.4% in 2025, With AUM Reaching $65B:
The Investment Management Corp. of Ontario announced a 7.4% return for 2025, underperforming its consolidated benchmark return of 8.8%. Assets of the crown corporation rose to C$90.7 billion ($65.66 billion) as of December 31, 2025.
The fund, which manages assets for public sector entities in the Canadian province of Ontario, had the strongest returns in its equities portfolio, which returned 19.1% for the year. Public market alternatives returned 8.4%—a strategy discontinued in 2024 that aimed to achieve uncorrelated returns followed by global credit (6.7%), private equity (6.5%), infrastructure (5.1%) and fixed income (1.7%).
In the fund’s annual report, fund leadership attributed strong returns in the public equities portfolio to Canadian equities and those in emerging markets. IMCO increased its exposure to domestic equities in the latter half of the year. The fund also noted subdued returns in private markets and that shifts in the exchange rate between the Canadian and U.S. dollars cut returns.
“Despite an uncertain geopolitical environment and foreign currency headwinds, we delivered a solid 7.4 percent return,” said Bert Clark, IMCO’s president and CEO, in a statement. “Our focus is on generating consistent returns for our clients by building well diversified growth-oriented portfolios while avoiding large, concentrated positions, unnecessary complexity, efforts to market time and the pursuit of outperformance in areas where we do not have any clear advantage. In an uncertain environment, that disciplined approach continued to deliver solid results for our clients.”
As of the end of 2025, IMCO allocated 25% of its portfolio to fixed income and government bonds, 23% to public equities, 13% to infrastructure and real estate, respectively, 12% to private equity, 11% to global credit, 2% to money market funds and other asset classes, and 1% to public market alternatives.
The fund has a mandate to invest at least one-third of its assets inside of Canada. By geography overall, IMCO allocates 53% of its assets to investments to the U.S., 12% to Europe, 5% to Asia Pacific and 1% to other regions.
Over the past three years, the fund reported annualized returns of 7.6%, while five-year annualized returns stood at 4.6%.
“Our results over the last three years highlight the value of our investment approach,” said Rossitsa Stoyanova, IMCO’s CIO, in a statement. “As the investment horizon extends, performance increasingly reflects our diversified asset mix, systematic management of currency exposure, cost efficiency, and targeted pursuit of outperformance. This approach is designed to deliver resilient outcomes across market cycles for our clients.”
Last Thursday, IMCO issued a press release stating it delivered 7.4% return in a volatile global environment:
Disciplined strategy drives third consecutive year of strong results
2025 HIGHLIGHTS
- Earned a 2025 investment return of 7.4% and achieved a 7.6% return over three years.
- Grew assets under management (AUM) to $90.7 billion while distributing approximately $3.5 billion to clients in 2025. Since 2020, IMCO has distributed approximately $11.1 billion to clients.
- Expenses declined by 10% year over year, bringing cost per $100 of AUM to 62 basis points, reflecting IMCO’s ongoing focus on cost management.
TORONTO (April 9, 2026) – The Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (“IMCO”) announced today that the weighted average net return of its clients’ portfolios was 7.4 per cent for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025. Assets under management increased to $90.7 billion.
“Despite an uncertain geopolitical environment and foreign currency headwinds, we delivered a solid 7.4 per cent return,” said Bert Clark, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our focus is on generating consistent returns for our clients by building well diversified growth-oriented portfolios while avoiding large, concentrated positions, unnecessary complexity, efforts to market time and the pursuit of outperformance in areas where we do not have any clear advantage. In an uncertain environment, that disciplined approach continued to deliver solid results for our clients.”
Public Equities were the largest contributor to IMCO’s absolute portfolio gains, earning 19.1 per cent. Private market returns were subdued, and movements in the U.S. dollar relative to the Canadian dollar detracted from total returns.
IMCO has played an increasingly active role in client asset mix over the last three years, which contributed to more consistent overall client returns. Three-year returns were 7.6 per cent while five-year returns continued to reflect the impact of a legacy asset mix and investments that were not aligned to IMCO's overall investing strategy.
“Our results over the last three years highlight the value of our investment approach,” said Rossitsa Stoyanova, Chief Investment Officer. “As the investment horizon extends, performance increasingly reflects our diversified asset mix, systematic management of currency exposure, cost efficiency, and targeted pursuit of outperformance. This approach is designed to deliver resilient outcomes across market cycles for our clients.”
As a Canadian institutional investor managing assets on behalf of Ontario’s public sector, IMCO sees a growing opportunity to deploy more capital at home where its clients’ beneficiaries live and work. Today, approximately one-third of IMCO’s $90.7 billion in assets under management is invested in Canada. IMCO will look to maintain this approximate exposure level while growing overall assets under management.
IMCO enters 2026 with a well-diversified portfolio, strong operational foundations and a collaborative culture focused on delivering long-term results for Canadian public-sector clients.
Learn more about IMCO's 2025 results and access our Annual Report here.
ABOUT IMCO
The Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (“IMCO”) manages $90.7 billion of assets on behalf of its clients. Designed exclusively to drive better investment outcomes for Ontario's broader public sector, IMCO operates under an independent, not-for-profit, cost recovery structure. We provide leading investment management services, including portfolio construction advice, better access to a diverse range of asset classes and sophisticated risk management capabilities. As one of Canada's largest institutional investors, we invest around the world and execute large transactions efficiently. Our scale gives clients access to a well-diversified global portfolio, including sought-after private and alternative asset classes. Follow us on LinkedIn and X @imcoinvest.
You can read the annual report highlights here and I highly recommend you download and read IMCO's full annual report here.
Below, I provide you with the table of contents:
Here are some of the key highlights at IMCO for 2025:
Below, you can read Chair Brian Gibson's report:
Lastly, it is definitely worth reading this Q&A with Rossitsa Stoyanova, CIO at IMCO where she reflects on IMCO’s experience in confronting intense geopolitical, economic and technological change:
Tell us about IMCO’s performance in 2025.
In 2025, IMCO's portfolio delivered solid returns amid complex market conditions, reflecting the resilience of an investment strategy built on discipline and diversification. Results were positive for a third consecutive year, with nearly all asset classes delivering strong gains. Real estate was the exception, though we believe it’s turning the corner with its broadly stable results, demonstrating meaningful progress from the year prior.
Our performance also benefited from the discretion IMCO exercised across client portfolios, as we made proactive adjustments to position us well amid changing market dynamics and elevated currency risk.
Over the year, exceptionally strong public markets challenged our ability to beat public market benchmarks, resulting in negative NVA. We continue taking a patient and disciplined approach to value creation, as most of our private assets are in the early stages of the investment life cycle and require time to realize their full value.
Notably, the core of our investment success this year came from our ability to diversify the portfolio and collaborate seamlessly across asset classes. For example, public equities partnered with infrastructure to build a high-performing utility portfolio, while Global Credit supported Public Equities' due diligence in an AI-related investment.
Across the platform, teams prioritized defensiveness and reduced concentration risk, ensuring the fund remained adequately diversified across geographies, sectors and trends.
Currency volatility was elevated this year. How did IMCO adjust accordingly?
U.S. dollar volatility and rising hedging costs weighed on our performance results this year. Although the U.S. dollar strengthened in the second half of the year, earlier swings reinforced the need to manage currency risk carefully. To protect the portfolio, we proactively repositioned our U.S. exposure by setting targets on both U.S. assets and the USD.
Public markets were once again concentrated in 2025. How did that dynamic influence IMCO’s results?
Market concentration remained a defining feature, as a small group of large technology companies often referred to as the “Magnificent Seven” extended their outsized influence on overall performance. That concentration was also reflected in IMCO’s results as public equities led portfolio performance this year.
The asset class delivered returns well above target, which we credit in part to the thoughtful design of our strategy. Our increased passive exposure performed as expected, giving us efficient upside from the tech rally. Meanwhile, we deployed active capital selectively, focusing only in areas where we had differentiated insight to add value. This includes select pre-IPO and IPO-stage companies where our team identified compelling growth opportunities.
A standout example of our active strategy in action was our investment in AI cloud platform CoreWeave, which returned $1 billion to the portfolio. We prudently trimmed the position during the year, realizing significant gains while remaining invested at an appropriate size.
How do private markets fit into IMCO’s overall investment strategy? What do they represent in terms of the portfolio’s long-term resilience?
Private markets are central to IMCO’s strategy, representing roughly half of total assets and a key driver of long-term returns. While these investments take longer to realize gains than public markets, the advantages they offer are significant. Many of today’s most valuable opportunities in infrastructure, real assets and early-stage growth companies are simply not accessible through public markets. They require scale, operational expertise and patient capital, which we bring as an institutional investor. Additionally, at the total portfolio level, privates help cushion our fund from short-term market swings and have historically outperformed public markets over full cycles. The scale, diversification and reliability they provide will remain critical to our investment success.
Our private portfolio is well diversified, filled with high-quality assets. Most of our strategies have reached their allocation and internalization targets, a testament to the team’s strong partnerships and flexible co-investment model. At this stage of the investment cycle, we are focused on optimizing the portfolio and partnering with our strategic partners and management teams and exerting meaningful influence over value creation.
How does IMCO adapt to fast-changing markets while staying true to long-term objectives?
As a long-term investor, we anchor decisions in fundamentals while remaining market aware and diversified — a discipline that proved critical this year.
As enthusiasm around AI lifted public markets, we took a picks and shovel approach that focused on investing in companies enabling the AI boom, such as data centres and energy. This allowed us to capture upside without assuming the risk of selecting individual winners.
At the same time, we stayed responsive to near-term shocks when warranted. Rapid shifts in U.S. policy disrupted global trade, currency and markets, prompting us to make targeted adjustments to client SAA, including selective hedging of U.S. assets and shorter bond durations to manage risk.
Meanwhile, at home in Canada, a renewed momentum to strengthen the economy is creating compelling opportunities. Our local insight, scale and flexible capital position us to pursue investments that align naturally with our expertise and long-term horizon.
In fast changing markets, we have proved that our advantage lies in our judgment and flexibility to adjust the strategy while maintaining focus on our clients’ long-term objectives.
Alright, time to cover IMCO's 2025 results.
First, I contacted IMCO last week to arrange a discussion with CIO Rossitsa Stoyanova and was told she wasn't available and the same for CEO Bert Clark.
Basically, IMCO is shunning me because I exposed a serious governance lapses a few years ago and they are still holding a grudge.
No problem, I stand by everything I've written on my blog and I can tell you straight out, I've been more than fair to IMCO over the years, giving them solid coverage when I feel it's warranted.
The fact that they make time to speak to reporters and didn't bother contacting me to set up a Teams meeting speaks volumes about their commitment to transparency and commitment to their clients who deserve a more in-depth discussion than these articles (reporters have never worked at pension funds, they aren't trained investment professionals who know how to ask tough questions).
I would suggest IMCO's Board led by Brian Gibson who is more reasonable and transparent, reaches out to me and I would be more than happy to have a Teams meeting with them and Bert Clark to put the past behind us (not my problem if former board members spilled the beans).
Anyway, that's my preamble. I want to be upfront as to why IMCO doesn't talk to me or support my work.
Now, what did I think of IMCO's 2025 results? They were solid, in line with what I thought they'd deliver given their asset mix which is a bit more tilted to public markets:
Notice Public Equities (25%), Fixed Income (23%), Money Market and other (2%) and Public Market Alternatives (1%) make up 51% of total assets.
On the private market side, Private Equity (12%), Real Estate (13%) and Infrastructure (13%) make up 38% of the assets and Global Credit which is made up of private credit (70%) and public credit (30%), makes up the rest of the assets, 11% of the total.
All this to prove my point, it's not an even split between public and private markets, there is more exposure to public markets and that helped the fund deliver a decent return last year, in line with what AIMCo delivered (it too is more tilted to public markets).
Next, the table below shows you investment performance by asset class and for the total fund:
But it's also worth noting Infrastructure underperformed its benchmark last year (5.1% vs 8.3% for benchmark) and Real Estate basically came in line with its benchmark (-0.5% vs -0.7% for benchmark).
Over a 5-year period, Private Equity is beating its benchmark (11.6% vs 10%), while Infrastructure (7.5% vs 8.6%) and Real Estate (-0.7 vs 0.7%) trailed their benchmark.
To be fair, IMCO has legacy assets to contend with that could explain some of this underperformance over a longer period but I do not know since I didn't get my interview to ask them.
In her Q&A, CIO Rossitsa Stoyanova defended private markets stating this:
Private markets are central to IMCO’s strategy, representing roughly half of total assets and a key driver of long-term returns. While these investments take longer to realize gains than public markets, the advantages they offer are significant. Many of today’s most valuable opportunities in infrastructure, real assets and early-stage growth companies are simply not accessible through public markets. They require scale, operational expertise and patient capital, which we bring as an institutional investor. Additionally, at the total portfolio level, privates help cushion our fund from short-term market swings and have historically outperformed public markets over full cycles. The scale, diversification and reliability they provide will remain critical to our investment success.
Our private portfolio is well diversified, filled with high-quality assets. Most of our strategies have reached their allocation and internalization targets, a testament to the team’s strong partnerships and flexible co-investment model. At this stage of the investment cycle, we are focused on optimizing the portfolio and partnering with our strategic partners and management teams and exerting meaningful influence over value creation.
I don't have an issue with what she states, CEO Bert Clark basically towing the same line, and they are both right, except if there is a significant structural change going on in private markets, especially private equity, where returns will come down significantly (due to higher competition, higher rates for longer, etc.).
I recently covered how Canadian pension funds are grappling with private equity and noted if you underperform the PE (or Infra or RE) index over a year, no problem, but over 5 years, you need to ask some serious questions on your strategy.
On private equity, I note this at IMCO:
Again, to be fair, IMCO's PE portfolio isn't as mature as some of its larger peers, maybe they got lucky with some exits and they do discuss top performers in the health sector above.
I would also want to know what percentage of IMCO's PE portfolio is fund investments relative to co-investments at this stage.
In Infrastructure, I note this on performance:
Overall, foreign exchange losses due to the weak US dollar cost the fund 1.4% last year, in line with what others experienced (those that hedged more aggressively lost less).
In Real Estate, I note this on key performance drivers:
In other portfolios, Global Credit performed well again, returning 6.7%, 100 basis points above its benchmark. Here are the key performance drivers:
Of course, it is worth noting that Public Equities delivered 19.1% last year and their early investment in CoreWeave proved very valuable there:
Alright, enough on IMCO's 2025 results, I would have liked to discuss more in-depth with Rossitsa but they are clearly not interested.
Below, Tom Lee, Fundstrat head of research, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss his outlook on equities, what to expect in a wartime economy, the most impactful factors in markets right now, and more.
And CNBC's "Squawk Box" team discusses markets ahead of earnings season with Dan Skelly, head of market research and strategy at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
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