Canada's largest pension fund generated a net investment return of 1.5% in its fiscal first quarter, driven by private-market holdings, investments in North American publicly traded equities and its exposure to debt markets.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board said Thursday that net assets for the quarter ended June 30 totaled 287.3 billion Canadian dollars ($219.9 billion), up from C$278.9 billion at the end of its prior fiscal quarter. Investment income generated C$4.1 billion of the C$8.4 billion increase in assets, and pension contributions accounted for the remainder.

CPPIB measures its performance on an annual basis against an internal benchmark based on returns from a mix of asset classes, but it doesn't disclose quarterly returns for that index.

The Canadian fund's latest quarterly results come as the Brexit vote in late June sparked wild swings in global equities and as renewed concerns over oversupplied energy markets weighed on investor sentiment. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell about 2.3% during the quarter ended June 30, while Canada's S&P/TSX Composite and New York's S&P 500 indexes posted modest gains of 4.2% and 1.9%, respectively.

The latest performance results are the first since a change in leadership for the Canadian pension fund giant. Mark Machin, formerly head of CPPIB's international operations, took over as chief executive June 13. He succeeded Mark Wiseman, who is set to join BlackRock Inc. in September as head of global active equity for the world's largest money manager.

CPPIB says its investment strategy is focused on diversifying its holdings across geographies and public and private asset classes to help guard against volatility in a bid to outperform over the long term during down markets and keep pace during bull runs.

"That power of diversification came through," in the latest performance, Mr. Machin said in phone interview. Since assuming his new role, Mr. Machin has promoted a number of CPPIB executives to more senior roles but reiterated on Thursday that "we don't expect any great lurches in the strategy."

Write to Ben Dummett at ben.dummett@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 11, 2016 13:05 ET (17:05 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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