MONTREAL -- The Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) is also suffering the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, posting a return of -2.3 per cent for the first six months of 2020.
The CDPQ unveiled its first half-year results on Friday, revealing a decline in its net assets, which stood at $333 billion as of June 30, 2020. As of December 31, net assets were $340.1 billion .
In a Friday morning news release, the fund tried to be reassuring, reminding investors of its annualized return of 6.3 per cent over a five-year period and 8.7 per cent over ten years.
According to President and CEO Charles Emond, the global economy has experienced "an unprecedented crisis," but he assured that the CDPQ is not experiencing a crisis like the one it experienced during the 2008 recession.
He pointed out that the Caisse's major real estate investments in shopping centres particularly hurt results.
More specifically, the buildings and infrastructure portfolios have experienced a decline of 7.3 per cent since the start of 2020, including 11.7 per cent for the buildings portfolio alone.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 7, 2020.
