REAL ESTATE – The $96.1bn (€67.7bn) Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan made a 21.3% return on its real estate portfolio in 2005.

The figure compared to a 6.2% return for the benchmark.

“Real estate, managed by the Cadillac Fairview Corporation Ltd., had total assets of $12.5bn at the end of 2005, compared to $10.9bn at the end of 2004, creating $1.6bn in value added for the fund in 2005,” the Toronto-based fund said.

“Real estate continued to represent 13% of total assets at the end of 2005.”

Overall, the fund made a 17.2% return – taking its net assets to $96.1bn from $84.3bn in 2004.

Income from investments was $14.1bnn, up from $10.8bn in the prior year.

“Our investment managers have delivered performance ahead of composite benchmark performance not only for the past year, but over the longer term,” said chief executive Claude Lamoureux.

The fund is an independent corporation responsible for investing the fund’s assets and administering the pensions of Ontario’s 163,000 elementary and secondary school teachers and 101,000 retired teachers.

Equities returned 17.9%, compared to 14.7% for the benchmark, taking the portfolio to $46bn.

Fixed income, which includes absolute return strategies and hedge funds, yielded 15.3%.