Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan reports positive return in first half

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board eked out a positive return in the first half of this year despite slumping bond and equities markets.

The pension plan said Monday that its total-fund net return for the six-month period was 1.2%.

The result came amid tumultuous global markets and the highest inflation rates in decades, Ontario Teachers’ president and CEO Jo Taylor said in a release.

“These results show that diversification, active management and an agile investment approach enable us to generate returns in a wide array of investment environments and position us well to navigate through what is likely to be a challenging investment landscape over the next few years,” he said.

Losses in public equities, credit and venture growth were offset by positive returns in inflation-sensitive, infrastructure and absolute-return strategies, chief investment officer Ziad Hindo said in the release.

“The fund has benefited from our deliberate efforts over the last 12 months to tilt the asset mix towards those that perform well in inflationary environments, particularly commodities and infrastructure,” he said.

As of June 30, public equities made up only 9% of the fund, compared to 23% for private equity and 18% for bonds.

Inflation-sensitive assets such as commodities and hedged products accounted for 22% of the portfolio, while real assets accounted for 25%.

Northern Trust Corp. said last month that the Canadian defined-benefit pension plans it tracks declined 14.5% on average in the first half. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board reported last week that it lost 4.2% in the most recent quarter.

Ontario Teachers’ 12-month total-fund net return as of June 30 was 8.3%. Its annualized net return over 10 years was 9.0%.

Net assets on June 30 grew to $242.5 billion.

The pension plan manages investments for 333,000 working members and pensioners. It was fully funded on Jan. 1 with a $17.2-billion surplus.

Mark Burgess

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Mark was the managing editor of Advisor.ca from 2017 to 2024.