Real Estate Bets Gone Wrong Roil $1.24 Trillion Canadian Funds

  • Pensions are now retooling property divisions after losses
  • Funds are dealing with challenges at some office properties
The financial district of Toronto.Photographer: Cole Burston/Bloomberg
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Almost no major Canadian pension manager has been spared.

The largest fund, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, lost 5% on its property portfolio in its last fiscal year as the commercial real estate slump deepened. For the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, the pain amounted to a staggering 16% loss on those bets, the worst fiscal year performance for those investments since the global financial crisis.