Pension Pulse

Rob Kozlowski of Pensions & Investments reports, PSP Investments returns 1% for fiscal year : Public Sector Pension Investment Board, Montreal, returned 1% in the fiscal year ended March 31, a news release said. The C$116.8 billion ($89.5 billion) pension fund exceeded its policy benchmark return of 0.3%, and its best-performing asset class was real estate at 14.4%, followed by infrastructure at 12.7% . Natural resources returned 6.9%; private equity, 2.4%; and public markets, -3.2% . A final asset class, private debt, was first instituted in November and thus one-year returns are not yet available. As of March 31, the actual allocation was 58.8% public markets, 17.4% real estate, 10.7% private equity, 7.4% infrastructure, 3.1% cash and cash equivalents, 2.1% natural resources and 0.5% private debt. PSP Investments manages the pension assets of Canadian federal public service workers, Canadian Forces, Reserve Forces and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Officials...

Timothy W. Martin of the Wall Street Journal reports, Calpers Reports Lowest Investment Gain Since Financial Crisis : The largest U.S. public pension posted its lowest annual gain since the last financial crisis due to heavy losses in stocks. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or Calpers, said it earned 0.6% on its investments for the fiscal year ended June 30, according to a Monday news release . It was the second straight year Calpers failed to hit its internal investment target of 7.5%. Workers or local governments often must contribute more when pension funds fail to generate expected returns. Calpers oversees retirement benefits for 1.7 million public-sector workers . Calpers’ annual results are watched closely in the investment world. It is considered a bellwether for U.S. public pensions because of its size and investment approach. Many pensions currently are struggling because of a sustained period of low interest rates. “This is a challenging ti...

Canada News Wire reports, bcIMC Reports Fiscal 2016 Annual Returns : British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC) today announced an annual combined pension return, net of costs, of -0.2 per cent for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016, versus a combined market benchmark of -0.3 per cent. Fiscal 2016 was a challenging year for investors. However, within a low return environment, our investment activities generated $133 million in additional value for our pension plan clients, driven by strong performance in private markets and real estate. Relative outperformance within the public equity markets, especially Canadian equities and emerging markets, as well as outperformance within our mortgages program, also contributed to investment returns . "On behalf of our clients, bcIMC manages a diverse and quality portfolio of assets and we follow an investment discipline that focuses on the long term," said Gordon J. Fyfe, bcIMC's Chief Executive Officer a...

Rob Copeland of the Wall Street Journal reports, Bridgewater’s Flagship Fund Falters as Another Thrives : The world’s largest hedge-fund firm posted billion-dollar swings in its largest funds during the first half of the year, highlighting how unpredictable markets are roiling many of Wall Street’s most prominent traders. Bridgewater Associates LP’s flagship hedge fund dropped about 12% through the end of June, according to people familiar with the firm. That marked the worst start to a year for the Pure Alpha fund since 1995. Pure Alpha bets on and against markets world-wide in an effort to stay ahead of macroeconomic trends. Meanwhile, the firm’s slightly smaller All Weather fund rose 10%, according to these people. All Weather uses a risk-parity strategy intended to adapt to a number of market conditions . It wasn’t clear exactly how much Bridgewater gained or lost in dollar figures, as the firm runs permutations of its funds that use borrowed money and other trading s...