The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. is reporting a 10 per cent annual combined pension plan return and an increase in assets under management to $251.6 billion as at March 31, 2025.
The one-year return underperformed its benchmark of 12.3 per cent. Over a five, 10- and 15-year period, the investment organization achieved a return of 8.9 per cent, 7.4 per cent and 8.6 per cent, respectively.
Read: BCI reports 7.5% annual return, assets grow to $250.4BN
Public equities were a bright spot for the BCI’s portfolio during the latest fiscal year, led by a 14.3 per cent return from global stocks followed by Canadian (12.6 per cent) and emerging markets (12.8 per cent).
The fixed income portion of the portfolio provided positive results from private debt (10.2 per cent), short term (8.3 per cent), nominal bonds (6.9 per cent) and funding program (4.3 per cent). Its private markets business also offered positive returns from private equity (13.4 per cent), infrastructure and renewable resources (8.3 per cent) and real estate debt (6.1 per cent). However, real estate equity was the only declining asset with a negative 1.8 per cent return.
The BCI leaned on a resilient, defensive-leaning investment strategy to weather the severe market turbulence leading to the end of its fiscal year, said Gordon J. Fyfe, the investment organization’s chief executive officer and chief investment officer, in a press release.
“As we continue to face market uncertainty, we are actively modelling client portfolios against a range of risk scenarios. In all market conditions, great deals can still be found, and we continue to leverage our strong liquidity position to transact across asset classes globally.”