Home > News > Pensions > British Columbia Investment Management Returns 7.5% in Fiscal 2024
Pensions

British Columbia Investment Management Returns 7.5% in Fiscal 2024

Assets of the plan increased to $182.88 billion at the end of March, boosted by strong returns in equities and private debt.
By Matt Toledo



British Columbia Investment Management Corp. announced on Thursday that it had achieved a 7.5% return for its combined pension plan in fiscal year 2024, a period that ends March 31.

Gross assets of the pension fund grew to C$250.4 billion ($182.88 billion) an increase from C$233 billion ($170.28 billion) the year before.

BCI manages the investments for 29 entities, including public pension funds, insurance plans and special purpose funds for public trusts, endowments and government bodies. The pension fund has 700,000 beneficiaries.

Over the past five, 10, 15 and 20 years, BCI has returned an annualized 7.5%, 7.8%, 9.0% and 7.7% respectively, as of March 31, 2024. BCI’s reported performance is based off its 6 largest pension clients by AUM, referred to as the combined pension plan clients, they are the College Pension Plan, Municipal Pension Plan, Teachers’ Pension Plan, BC Hydro Power Smart, the Public Service Pension Plan and Work Safe BC. 

Never miss a story — sign up for CIO newsletters to stay up-to-date on the latest institutional investment industry news.

“We delivered solid absolute results even through challenged markets this year,” said Gordon J. Fyfe, BCI’s chief executive officer and CIO, in a statement. “This was not a coincidence. Rather, it speaks to our team’s diligent risk approach and prudent liquidity management, which provided us with resilience and capability to capture market dislocations and deploy capital.”

Strong Equities, Weak Real Estate

Like many of its Canadian peers, BCI reported strong returns from equities, both Canadian and global while its real estate assets struggled. All asset classes reported by BCI had positive returns in the fiscal year, except for real estate. “The real estate equity market has faced challenges as interest rates remain elevated, impacting valuations, cost of debt and lower occupancies,” the fund stated in its annual report.

Equities across all geographies in the plan’s portfolios had double-digit returns. Canadian equities returned 14.6% in the fiscal year; while emerging-market public equities returned 10.1% The biggest driver of the fund’s equity returns were U.S. technology stocks, which helped its public equities portfolio return 26.5% in the fiscal year.

In its fixed-income portfolio, private debt returned 13.3% in the fiscal year for BCI. Short-term bonds returned 5.2%, and nominal bonds returned 1.9%. The fund’s infrastructure and renewable resources portfolio returned 7.0% in the fiscal year, while private equity and real estate debt returned 6.0% and 6.9% respectively. Real estate, the fund’s worst-performing asset class returned negative 5.0%

Related Stories:

PSP Investments Returns 7.2% in Fiscal Year 2024

Public Equities Spur 10.2% Return for University Pension Plan Ontario in 2023

CPP Investments Returns 8% in Fiscal 2024

Tags: , , , ,

Home > News > Pensions > NY State Pension Returns 11.55% in Fiscal 2024, Dumps Another Stock Fund
Pensions

NY State Pension Returns 11.55% in Fiscal 2024, Dumps Another Stock Fund

The $267.7 billion pension giant cashed out of $3.8 billion worth of equity investments in March and April alone.

By Michael Katz

A strong equities performance helped propel the New York State Common Retirement Fund to an 11.55% investment return for the fiscal year ended March 31, easily beating its long-term expected rate of return of 5.9% and raising its asset value to $267.7 billion.

The NYCRF’s top-performing asset class was domestic equities, which returned 28.98%, followed by global equities, which earned 24.29%. Multi-asset strategic partnerships returned 14.80%, non-U.S. equities rose 14.21%, and opportunistic/absolute return strategies increased 11.17%.

Credit investments returned 10.65%, while real assets and private equity were up 8.16% and 6.85% respectively. Cash returned 5.5% and fixed-income investments increased 2.65%. The only asset class that didn’t see a gain was real estate, which was down 9.72%.

“Strong performances across asset classes helped drive the state pension fund’s investment returns higher over the past year, with many companies reporting better-than-expected earnings and consumer spending remaining strong,” New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement. “While inflation persists and global tensions pose risks to investors, the fund, thanks to its prudent management and long-term approach, is well positioned to weather any storms.”

For more stories like this, sign up for the CIO Alert newsletter.

As of March 31, the NYCRF’s asset allocation was 26.80% domestic equities, 20.51% fixed income, 14.60% private equity, 11.83% non-U.S. equities, 9.33% real estate, 4.50% credit, 3.44% global equities, 3.44% real assets, 3.02% opportunistic/absolute return strategies, 1.33% cash and 1.20% multi-asset strategic partnerships.

Despite the robust equity performance, the pension fund continued to cash out of public equity funds and terminated Baillie Gifford Investment Management, an international equity fund valued at $1.9 billion in April, according to its most recent monthly transaction report. In March and April alone, the NYCRF divested $3.8 billion worth of public equities, compared with approximately $4.6 billion for all of last year.

In addition to terminating the equity fund, the pension plan committed $108 million worth of investments in April, including $58 million within its emerging manager program and $50 million within its real assets portfolio.

Under its emerging manager program, which invests in newer, smaller and diverse investment management firms, the pension fund earmarked $50.5 million for the ZM Capital Fund IV, advised by HarbourVest Partners. The fund seeks to acquire lower-middle-market North American tech-enabled companies in the media, entertainment and communication sectors.

Also under the emerging manager program, the pension fund committed $7.5 million to the GP5 Sidecar JV fund through the Empire GCM RE Anchor Fund. The fund will invest along with the Griffith Fund V in life science and industrial/flex investment opportunities.

And within its real assets portfolio, the pension fund committed $50 million to the DigitalBridge Partners III fund. The closed-end fund aims to acquire digital infrastructure assets, including macro cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cell networks, edge infrastructure and other related businesses.

Related Stories:

New York State Pension Cashes Out of $1.9 Billion Public Equity Fund

NY State Pension Returns 6.2% in Fiscal Q3, Cashes Out Another Public Equity Fund

NY Pension Shifts Global Equity Assets to Alts

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

«