The Ontario Pension Board posted a return of 10.8 per cent in 2017, an increase on its return of 8.1 per cent in 2016.
The pension fund’s investment income for the year was $2.5 billion, up from $1.75 billion in 2016. Its net assets were $26.4 billion, an increase from the end of 2016 when they sat at $24.4 billion. The plan also maintained its funded status at 97 per cent.
Read: Ontario Pension Board returns 8.1% in 2016
“I am very pleased with our strong performance and investment return in 2017 — the first partial year our portfolio has been managed by the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario,” said Mark Fuller, president and chief executive officer of the Ontario Pension Board. “We believe that pooling our assets under IMCO’s management will help us earn higher returns going forward than we could on our own and improve our direct access to a wider range of high-quality investment opportunities,
The pension fund also increased its exposure to private markets by about $1.8 billion in 2017. The changes included increasing its infrastructure portfolio by 15.8 per cent, private equity by 53.5 per cent and real estate by 18.1 per cent.
Its public market investments, including public market equity, fixed income and cash, returned 13.3 per cent in 2017, compared to seven per cent in 2016. Private market investments, consisting of real estate, private equity and infrastructure, returned 4.5 per cent, compared to 11.1 per cent in 2016.
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