Canada’s largest pension funds – known colloquially as the ‘Maple 8’ – can be a useful proxy for the health of the wider real assets markets – such is their long history and scale in infrastructure and real estate. Through their public reporting of investment performance, they have shown a divergence in fortunes between the two asset classes.
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) was the latest to do this late last week. Its C$32bn (€20.4bn) infrastructure portfolio generated a 17.8% one-year net return (13.8% over five years). Meanwhile, its C$26.6bn real estate portfolio barely made it into positive territory, posing 0.03% return.
Earlier in the year, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan painted similar pictures. For the former, infrastructure made 8.1% while real estate returned 0.5%. Ontario Teachers’ infrastructure portfolio generated 9.1% for all of 2024, while real estate came in negative at -0.7%. PSP Investments and Ontario Teachers both mentioned the negative impact of their exposure to the office market, which has undergone repricing in recent years, particularly in the US.
At the beginning of June, CPP Investments sold its 50% stake from a C$1.5bn Canadian office portfolio it co-owned with Oxford Properties, the real estate arm of fellow Maple 8 fund OMERS. At the time, Sophie van Oosterom, managing director and head of real estate at CPP Investments, said: “The transaction is a continuation of our real estate strategy to secure strong business plan execution and redeploy capital into new opportunities, supporting the continued growth and performance optimisation of our global real estate portfolio.”
Van Oosterom was appointed to head up real estate at CPP Investments last September, having previously worked as global head of real estate at Schroders. She is one example of a number of changes taking place at the top of real estate teams within the Maple 8.
Just last week, it was announced that Paul Mouchakkaa was leaving Alberta Investment Management Corporation where he was head of real estate to join property investment firm Crow Holdings. In the past two years, there have been two other major appointments within the real estate teams of the Maple 8, including Pierre Cherki at Ontario Teachers.
Another was Rana Ghorayeb, who last year was appointed head of real estate at what was – until this week – known as Ivanhoé Cambridge. Together with its parent, the C$473bn Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Ivanhoé Cambridge has changed their names to La Caisse.
As well as an example of rebranding, it is also part of an “integration” of the real estate business into La Caisse, marking a move away from the more independent model that Ivanhoé Cambridge was able to operate under. A similar shift is happening at Ontario Teachers, which is also reintegrating its real estate arm, Cadillac Fairview.
The overriding theme for real estate at the Maple 8 is one of change.
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