AIMCo Achieved 8% Balanced Fund Return in 2023

Equities and private debt boosted fund returns, while real estate lagged.


The Alberta Investment Management Company
announced on Monday that it had achieved an 8% return for its balanced fund in 2023, although below under the 9.3% return on the fund’s benchmark. The 8% return represents a net investment return of $8.9 billion, bringing the fund’s total assets to $160.6 billion at the end of 2023. 

AIMCo invests on behalf of pensions, endowments, foundations and insurers in the Canadian province of Alberta. AIMCo’s balanced fund return represents a client mix across asset classes. The fund announced a total fund return of 6.9%, below its benchmark of 8.7%. 

“During 2023, persistently high inflation and interest rates and challenging geopolitical factors combined to affect global markets,” said Evan Siddall, CEO ofAIMCo, in a press release. “Our investment teams continued to seize opportunities and effectively mitigate emerging risks to deliver a solid return for our clients and the Albertans they serve.”

The balance fund has returned 8.0%, 5.3% and 7.3% annualized for the past one, four, and 10 years respectively. In the same period, the total fund has returned 6.9%, 5.0%, and 6.7%. 

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AIMCo will release detailed investment returns in its annual report, due out in June 2024.

Asset Class Returns

AIMCo’s highest-performing asset class was equities, which returned 15.8% in 2023. Private debt and loans returned 9.6%, and money market and fixed-income assets returned 7.7%. Private equity returned 6.7%. The fund’s only negative returns came in real estate, which returned negative 8.4% in 2023. Infrastructure and renewable resources returned 3.8% and 1.6% respectively. 

“With a continued focus on long-term results, we made significant strides in implementing our new investment strategy and translating it into asset class specific strategies, while navigating challenging markets throughout 2023,” said Marlene Puffer, CIO of AIMCo, in a release. “As we set our sights on 2024, we will focus on enhancing value in our existing direct investments and on managing private asset class allocations in this environment of capital constraint and higher interest rates.”

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Tech Stocks Lead Norway’s Pension Giant to 6.3% Return in Q1

Equities help spur the $1.6 trillion Government Pension Fund Global’s nearly $110 billion investment gain during the quarter.



Strong gains from equities helped Norway’s sovereign wealth fund return 6.3% during the first quarter of the year to help raise its asset value to $1.6 trillion, larger than any pension fund in the world. Despite the robust gains, the performance fell just short of its benchmark’s return of 6.4%.

“Our equity investments had a very strong return in the first quarter, particularly driven by the tech sector,” Deputy CEO Trond Grande said in a statement.

The Government Pension Fund Global, also known as the “Oil Fund,” because it is funded by revenue generated by Norway’s North Sea oil fields, increased in market value by more than 1.95 trillion kroner ($176.7 billion) during the quarter ended March 31 to just under 17.72 trillion kroner. Approximately 1.21 trillion kroner of that was from its investment gains.

Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the pension giant, said that currency movements, particularly the weakening of the krone against several main currencies, increased the fund’s value by 647 billion kroner, while fund inflows added 96 billion kroner.

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The pension fund’s equity investments returned 9.12% during the quarter and were the only asset class not to decline in value during the three-month period. The portfolio’s fixed-income investments lost 0.35% during the quarter, while its unlisted real estate holdings lost 0.54%.

The GPFG’s unlisted renewable energy infrastructure assets were the biggest drag on the portfolio, losing 11.39% during the quarter. However, this had little impact on the quarterly results as the assets only account for approximately 0.1% of the entire portfolio.

As of the end of March, the pension fund’s asset allocation was 72.1% equities, 26.0% fixed income, 1.8% in unlisted real estate, and 0.1% in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure. It also reported a 10-year annualized return of 7.19% and an annualized return of 6.28% since the start of 1998.

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