The market value of Canadian employer-sponsored pension funds totalled $1.6 trillion at the end of the first quarter, up 6.9% from the fourth quarter of 2014, says Statistics Canada.
Pension fund investments in stocks grew 5% in the first quarter. The value of bond holdings increased 5.2%, while investments in real estate assets were up 5.6%.
Read: Market value of pension funds grows again
The value of foreign investments held in Canadian pension funds increased 7.3%, and accounted for 34.1% of total pension fund assets.
Pension fund revenue grew 8.6% to $47.5 billion, as profits from the sale of securities rose 14.9%.
Read: Market value of pension funds keeps growing
Meanwhile, expenditures declined 6.5% in the first quarter. With the increase in revenues and decline in expenditures, net income rose 21.6% to $28.6 billion.
More than 6.2 million Canadian workers are members of employer-sponsored pension plans. Of this group, 5.2 million (83.3%) workers belong to pension plans with assets managed by trusteed funds. The remaining members have assets managed by insurance company contracts.
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