The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is reporting a mid-year 4.6 per cent investment return, up $23 billion pushing its net assets to $496 billion as at June 30, 2025.
“Against significant rate increases, stock market concentration and challenges in real estate over the past five years, our portfolio held strong and outperformed its benchmark portfolio,” said Charles Emond, president and chief executive officer, during a press conference.
He said the investment organization’s portfolio is split globally with about 40 per cent located in the U.S. followed by Canada (25 per cent), Europe (15 per cent) and Asia and the rest of the world (10 per cent). He added investors might have been overallocated to the U.S. around the second election of U.S. President Donald Trump, but the market has provided about $80 billion in returns over five.
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“[The U.S.] may have reached a peak in recent years, that’s an issue that all the institutional investors actually talk about when we meet, . . . because if you think about in the last five years and what performed, [it] was the U.S. That’s where people actually deployed money, that’s where the valuations went up.”
The investment organization credited significant contributions from Canadian and emerging markets and a timely risk-taking during a market slide in early April for the six per cent return achieved by its equity markets portfolio, outperforming the benchmark’s 5.5 per cent return.
The real assets portfolio returned 2.8 per cent during the first half of 2025 thanks to positive performance from infrastructure (4.5 per cent) and even real estate (0.1 per cent) with assets stabilizing their value during the six-month period.
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Escalating trade tensions and the risk of economic recession in the U.S. significantly impacted the fixed income segment, which generated a 3.9 per cent return and beat the benchmark of three per cent.
Private equities enjoyed a moderate growth in the profitability of portfolio companies during a slowing environment, the investment organization said. The asset class produced a 3.4 per cent return, beating the two per cent benchmark return.
Over a five- and 10-year period, the average annualized return reached 7.7 per cent and seven per cent, respectively, with both results outpacing the investment organization’s benchmark.
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