Annual Activity Report 1999 (CDPQ)

Summary

• Total assets under management exceeded $105 billion at the end of 1999.p.4
• The overall return in 1999 was 16.5%, and the average annual return over 1995 to 1999 was 14.7% against average annual inflation of 1.7%.p.4
• The average internal rate of return of the participations subsidiaries on Canadian equities was 27.3% over the first five-year cycle and 27.4% in 1999.p.5
• Private placements reached 12% of total depositors' assets.p.5
• The foreign and emerging markets equities portfolio returned 43.1%, and the real estate portfolio returned 14.6%.p.18
• Capital Communications' portfolio reached $3.7 billion across 78 companies, with an internal rate of return of 58.5%.p.23

Key insights

1. The real estate specialized portfolio exceeded $13.6 billion and represented 13.6% of depositors' assets.p.5
2. Canadian equities and US equities managers returned 32.7% and 20.5% respectively.p.7
3. The Caisse contributed $300 million of financing to the acquisition of Highway 407 in Ontario.p.7
4. Hypothèques CDPQ issued the first commercial mortgage-backed securities on the Canadian public market, worth $254 million.p.8
5. The share of portfolios linked to stock markets rose from 47.7% in 1998 to 54.7%.p.8
6. Asset management added $1.6 billion of value over the benchmark indices, and the real return after 2.6% inflation was 13.9%.p.16
7. The real estate portfolio return of 14.6% beat the AON index by 670 basis points.p.18