The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) says strong private equity gains helped to drive overall performance in its first quarter of fiscal 2022, which ended on June 30, 2021.

The investment manager says net assets reached $519.6-billion in the first quarter, compared to $497.2-billion reported at the end of fiscal 2021 on March 31, 2021. “The $22.4-billion increase in net assets for the quarter consisted of $17.7-billion in net income after costs and $4.7-billion in net Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions,” the asset manager wrote in a statement announcing its quarterly results.

Managers also say the 10-year and five-year annualized net nominal returns were 11.1 per cent and 11.4 per cent, respectively. CPP Investments further says that the fund achieved 10-year and five-year annualized net real returns of 9.3 per cent and 9.4 per cent respectively once both the base CPP and additional CPP accounts are combined. Overall, the base CPP account achieved and 3.5 per cent net return for the quarter, while the additional CPP account achieved a 2.9 per cent net return for the quarter.

“The fund’s quarterly results were driven by the ongoing strength in public equity markets gains across all private equity and real assets programs and contributions from credit investments,” they write. “A strong Canadian dollar, boosted by recovering energy prices, partially offset these gains.”