CPPIB PE portfolio jumps 25% YoY

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board‘s private equity portfolio posted a year-over-year increase of 25 percent for the 2017 fiscal year’s first quarter, which ended 30 June.

The Toronto-based fund’s private equity exposure reached C$59.6 billion ($46.02 billion; €41.21 billion), an increase of one-quarter from the C$47.6 billion value reported at the end of the same quarter last year. The 2017 first-quarter figure is also 2.4 percent higher than the C$58.2 billion listed for the three months ending 31 March.

Private equity now represents 20.8 percent of the total assets reported for the Canada Pension Plan Fund, a fund within the larger CPPIB, which marked a new high. CPPIB is the umbrella organisation that makes investments through the CPP Fund.

The CPP fund climbed 3 percent to C$287.3 billion in net assets, from C$278.9 billion in the previous quarter, and 7 percent from the first quarter of fiscal year 2016. CPPIB attributed this record high to its net investment income of C$4.1 billion and net CPP contributions to funds of C$4.3 billion.

The portfolio realised a net 1.45 percent rate of return for the quarter. CPPIB said in a statement that due to its multi-generational funding and liabilities, long-term measurements are more appropriate than those calculated on a quarterly or yearly basis. It marked a 9.1 percent and 5.5 percent net IRR for five-year and 10-year periods, respectively.

CPPIB’s private asset portfolio, along with its fixed-income strategy and public equity exposure in Canada and the US, fuelled the fund increase, according to the statement.

CPPIB’s direct private equity programme focuses on North America and Europe, and seeks a range of ownership structures from minority to full control, co-investing alongside its general partners or investing in opportunities that do not fall under the traditional PE structure, according to its 2016 annual report released in May.

In May, CPPIB named a new president and chief executive, Mark Machin, who joined the pension in 2012 as senior managing director. It is also building an office in Sydney for the fiscal year to streamline its operations in Australia, where it has invested C$7.9 billion to-date.