Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec announced Wednesday that the Québecois pension achieved a 9.4% return in 2024. Assets of the fund increased by C$40 billion ($27.74 billion) to C$473 billion ($328.03 billion) during the year.
The fund, however, underperformed its benchmark’s 11.8% return, with real estate dragging down the portfolio. Equities returned 22.1% for the year against a benchmark of 22.7%. Fixed income returned 1.3% against a 1.4% benchmark, while real assets returned 0.6% against a 9.2% benchmark.
Within the equity portfolio, public equites returned 25.5%, surpassing the 24.1% benchmark. The fund’s private equity portfolio returned 17.2%, against a benchmark of 20.8%. Within the fund’s real assets portfolio, infrastructure returned 9.5%; however, real estate lost 10.8%.
Over the past five and 10 years, CDPQ’s portfolio returned an annualized 6.2% and 7.1%, respectively.
“While uncertainty is high, particularly due to ongoing tariff negotiations, discipline and the sound diversification of our portfolio will remain key to delivering the long-term returns our depositors need,” said Charles Emond, president and CEO of CDPQ, in a statement. “Their plans remain in excellent financial health, and our results for one, five and ten years have made a significant contribution, despite the turbulence.”
The fund, in its annual report, highlighted its investments in Québec. In 2024, CDPQ made C$4.3 billion in investments in the province, increasing to a total of C$93 billion, across all asset classes. The fund aims to achieve C$100 billion in investments in the province by 2026.
The CDPQ manages the assets of 48 depositors, mostly pension and insurance plans from the province of Québec, and approximately 6 million people are beneficiaries.
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Tags: Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Canada, CDPQ, Charles Emond, Quebec