CDPQ posts negative returns, outperforms benchmark amid market volatility

Faced with the worst market in 50 years, Canadian institutional investor CDPQ has posted a return of –5.6 percent for the year ending Dec. 31, 2022. Despite the negative return, CDPQ outperformed its benchmark.

The weighted-average return on CDPQ’s depositors’ funds was –5.6 percent in 2022, compared with –8.3 percent for the benchmark portfolio, representing more than C$10 billion ($7.5 billion) in added value.

“The year 2022 provided an environment filled with several challenges, with spiking inflation, historic interest rate hikes by central banks and rising geopolitical tensions,” said Charles Emond, president and CEO of CDPQ. “The first half of the year was marked by the worst concurrent correction in the stock and bond markets in 50 years, which posted negative returns from –10 percent to –30 percent. In this unusual context, and with few places for investors to hide, all of our asset classes outpaced their respective indexes.”

Throug