Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec | Departure of a big name in the stock markets

There is change in the stock market sector at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) after a year of economic turbulence, learned The Press. Head of equity markets Helen Beck’s position has been cut and another vice president is leaving.

Without being the subject of a public announcement in good and due form, the departures were nevertheless confirmed by the “wool socks” of Quebecers on Friday.

“The position of Senior Vice-President, Stock Markets will not be replaced in order to simplify the organizational structure,” Caisse spokesperson Kate Monfette said in an email.

This news was announced to the employees of the manager of public and parapublic pension and insurance plans, Thursday, as part of an internal memo in which several subjects were discussed. They also learned that a veteran of the Quebec institution, Claude Bergeron, currently senior vice-president and chief risk officer, would retire later this year after a 35-year career.

The date of his departure has not been specified, but the transition will be “gradual and orderly”, indicated the Caisse, which underlined the “impressive track record of Mr. Bergeron”. The person who will succeed him has not yet been named.

As for the stock markets – one of the CDPQ’s three major portfolios – it is therefore two of the five members of the management team who are packing up. This sector reports to Senior Vice-President and Head of Liquid Markets Vincent Delisle.

Other departure

Like M.^me Beck, Justin Nightingale, who was vice president, portfolio management, equity markets, has already left the institution. It was not possible to reach the two former CDPQ managers on Friday. The circumstances of Mr Nightingale’s job change were not explained. Their photo still appeared on the institution’s website on Friday.

According to our information, Mr. Nightingale would continue his career at PSP Investments, asset manager of the federal civil servants’ pension fund.

These two departures come a few weeks before the presentation of the institution’s annual results – usually in mid-February – which are likely to be tinged with red given the performance of the stock markets and the economy in 2022.

Mr. Nightingale had worked at the CDPQ for 12 and a half years, while Mr.^me Beck had 6 years of seniority. The two were already in post at the time of Mr. Delisle’s arrival in August 2020. It was not possible to know who will replace Mr. Nightingale and in what way Mr.^me Beck will be split.

“The structure of the stock markets continues to evolve to adjust to strategies and better meet business needs,” wrote Ms.^me Monfette, in his response to The Press.

In the red

The first six months of the year had been difficult for the CDPQ, which had posted a loss on paper of 33.6 billion, which represents a return of -7.9%. Small consolation: the performance was higher than that of the reference index, established at -10.5%.

Among the Caisse’s asset classes, that of equities had posted a loss of 21.1 billion (-10.6%), while that of the benchmark index was -11.9%.

At a press conference to present the portrait of the first six months of 2022, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the CDPQ, Charles Emond, had emphasized the performance of the overall portfolio superior to that of the benchmark index. He had nevertheless been questioned on more than one occasion about the Caisse’s performance compared to other pension plan asset managers who had done better.

On the Ontario side, the teachers’ pension plan (Teachers) – whose net assets are 242.5 billion – had obtained a return of 1.2% at the end of the first half last year. . The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) remained close to balance with a performance of -0.4%.

A sign of volatility, the average return for Canadian pension funds was -14.7% in the first half, according to the RBC Investor & Treasury Services Retirement Plans Universe. Nevertheless, even over five years, the performance of the CDPQ (6.1%) remains lower than that of Teachers (7.9%) and OMERS (7.5%).

With the collaboration of Francis Vailles, The Press