Canada Pension Posts 1.9% Return on Global Equities Markets

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the country’s biggest public pension manager, posted a return of 1.9 percent in the fiscal second quarter on gains in global equities markets.

Investment income for the three months ended Sept. 30 was C$3.1 billion ($3.1 billion), the Toronto-based fund manager said today in a statement. Assets rose to C$170.1 billion from C$165.8 billion on June 30.

“Equity markets were strong,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Wiseman said today in a phone interview. “We, by and large, reflect global capital markets, and then what we’re trying to do is add value through active investing.”

Canada Pension’s results missed the 3.2 percent median return of the country’s pension funds over the three months, according to RBC Investor Services. Canada’s equity benchmark Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 6.2 percent and the MSCI World Index (MXWO) advanced 6.1 percent in the quarter.

Canada Pension, which made investments in Australia, China and the U.S. in the quarter, will continue to hunt for transactions around the world, Wiseman said.

“We continue to see opportunities in emerging markets and we are starting to see positive, cautiously optimistic signs of growth in the U.S. and, by extension, Canada,” Wiseman said. “We continue to be wary of the situation in Europe, it’s fair to say we’re proceeding there with a high degree of caution.”

Wiseman said he remains “cautiously optimistic” of a return to modest global growth.

Canada Pension covers every Canadian province except Quebec.

To contact the reporter on this story: Doug Alexander in Toronto at dalexander3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net; David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net