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Canada’s CDPQ Inks Another Alternative Energy Deal

The pension fund has launched a joint venture with the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake to invest in renewable energy infrastructure.

By Michael Katz



Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the public pension fund of Québec, has launched a financial and strategic partnership with the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake to jointly invest in renewable energy infrastructure projects. According to the Canadian pension fund, the venture will also seek to facilitate Canadian Indigenous communities’ access to financing.

Under the joint venture, the organizations plan to establish partnerships based on an alignment of interests, as well as on the “social acceptability of projects.” They are also looking to provide Indigenous communities with the technical capabilities necessary for negotiating complex agreements and analyzing the financial conditions of large-scale projects. According to the CDPQ, the two will also conduct “rigorous monitoring” to help ensure a “sustainable and inclusive” development approach.

“For over a century, major energy infrastructure projects have impacted the rights and lands of Indigenous peoples. We believe that now is the time for our communities to participate in the energy transition by owning and benefiting from energy infrastructure on our ancestral lands,” said Cody Diabo, grand chief of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, in a statement.

Diabo added that the partnership intends to provide “First Nations and Inuit communities with the economic opportunity to maximize their participation in large-scale energy infrastructure on their lands and benefit from the revenues generated.”

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The venture is the latest alternative investment deal the CDPQ has signed over the past several months. Among other investments, the pension fund announced in October 2024 that it will partner with Nuveen Green Capital to launch a C$830 million ($583 million) financing program for sustainable U.S. commercial real estate.

CDPQ also announced, in late September 2024, that it is acquiring a 25% stake in First Hydro, which operates electricity generation and storage facilities in the U.K. Earlier that month, the pension fund announced it invested C$575 million alongside capital network Fonds de solidarité FTQ in Énergir, a Québec-based energy provider. The investment is intended to support the provider’s efforts to decarbonizing its energy production. Last August, a consortium of Canadian investors that includes CDPQ said it will allocate C$145 million to the MKB Partners Fund III, which makes energy transition investments in the industrial, clean energy and mobility sectors.

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Home > News > Asset Allocation > Swedish Pension Fund AP2 Returns 8.2% in 2024
Asset Allocation

Swedish Pension Fund AP2 Returns 8.2% in 2024

The investment performance raises the pension’s asset value to $42.9 billion.

By Michael Katz



The portfolio of Swedish pension fund Andra AP-fonden (AP2) returned 8.2% in 2024, up from 5.9% the previous year, raising its asset value to 458.9 billion Swedish kronor ($42.9 billion) as of December 31, 2024. The return translated into a 34.9-billion-Swedish-kronor annual investment gain.

The fund’s five-year returns after costs were 5.2% at the end of 2024, down from 6.6% at the end of 2023. Over the past 10 years, AP2 reported annualized returns after costs of 6.3%, compared with a 6.8% 10-year return at the end of 2023.

“We deliver a strong result for the year with a good return, where the largest contribution comes from equities in developed markets and private equity,” said Eva Halvarsson, CEO of AP2, in a statement. “Within fixed-income assets, listed and unlisted credits are key drivers to the result. As the Swedish krona has weakened during the year, currency hedging has had a negative impact on the return.”

During the first half of the year, AP2 registered a 4.9% return after costs, or 20.6 billion Swedish kronor during the period, which it ended with 445.8 billion Swedish kronor in assets. The pension fund attributed the six-month gain to a strong global economy, adding that growth forecasts were upgraded and risk assets performed well, with “several stock indices reaching all-time highs.”

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“The equity and fixed income markets have developed well during the first half of 2024,” Halvarsson said in a statement when AP2 announced its first-half results last August. “AP2’s dynamic investment strategy, with continuous adjustments of the Fund’s currency exposure and allocation to equity versus fixed income assets, has contributed to this return.”

Halvarsson also said the fund’s investment team aims to “avoid concentrations in large companies or industries and place high financial and sustainability requirements on our investments.”

Last year was the pension fund’s final full year under former CIO Erik Kleväng Callert, who left AP2 after four years overseeing its investment portfolio to become CEO of Swedish insurance company SEB Trygg Liv. Callert’s successor, Anna Hammer, is scheduled to start in the spring. She is currently CIO of Länsförsäkringar Liv.

 

Related Stories:

Swedish Pension Fund AP2 Returns 10.7% in First Half

Swedish Pension Fund AP2 Returns 2.9% in H1

Seeking Higher Returns, Sweden’s AP Pension Pushes into Private Equity

 

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