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Twenty-five years ago, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) received its first transfer of $12.1 million and began investing funds from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to help keep its pension promise to Canadians.
Great care was taken in laying the foundation for what was a new investment organization. Our 12 founding directors, representing provinces from coast to coast, saw it as an opportunity to build something that would be of increasing importance to Canadians in the decades ahead. With a long-term vision rooted in integrity and independence, we set a course forward for Canada’s national pension plan.
Today, that promise remains firmly in place. The CPP Fund is $590.8 billion and the seventh-largest pension fund in the world.
After initial investments in equities and fixed-income securities, we began carefully exposing capital to new markets, including Canadian and foreign index funds. We made our first private market investment in 2001, and a year later, the World Bank recognized our governance model as an example to follow. In 2006, we shifted to active management to provide access to a broader set of investment strategies, empowering our investment professionals to build a more resilient portfolio.
We expanded internationally in 2008, opening offices in Hong Kong and London for greater access to opportunities in Asia and Europe. And, by 2015, we added offices in New York, São Paulo and Mumbai. That year, we launched our debt issuance program, and secured the approximately US$12 billion acquisition of Antares Capital – our biggest investment to date. We followed that up with more significant moves, investing in energy infrastructure with Wolf Midstream and Pattern Energy, and opening offices in Sydney and San Francisco.
We also recognize the vital importance of sustainability, becoming the first pension fund manager to issue a green bond and subsequently developing a climate change program to guide our organizational efforts. In 2022, we committed our portfolio and operations to become net zero of greenhouse gas emissions across all scopes by 2050, and our efforts have paved the way for progress.
Our measured approach to investing has allowed us to build a globally diversified portfolio that is robust and resilient, protecting the CPP Fund through the inevitable ups and downs of financial markets. We successfully navigated the global financial crisis, the pandemic years, and more recent challenging events. Through it all, we never lost sight of our purpose.
“We are firmly focused on delivering results over the long term and will not allow short-term conditions to distract us from our single, overarching goal: helping provide Canadians with financial security during their retirement,” says John Graham, President and CEO.
Our progress is only possible because we have a clear mandate, the independence to achieve it and the professionals to execute it.
Our founding directors and colleagues accomplished their mission, and ours continues. We’re firmly focused on delivering results for Canadians for the next 25 years and beyond, just as we have been for the past quarter-century. With trust and support, we will do our part to keep Canada’s pension promise.
The benefits of building a globally diversified portfolio
As one of the world’s largest institutional investors, we seek the best opportunities – wherever they are.
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