About $53 billion. This is the colossal sum that the Caisse de dépôt et Placement holds in private funds. However, it is impossible to know which companies the money ended up with.
• Also read: We secretly invested $1.5 billion of our money
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The institute flatly refuses to say how many different funds it invests in and how much money it has in total.
“The disclosure sought would likely result in, and could result in, the disclosure of strategic positions.” […] This puts the fund in a vulnerable position and thereby causes it significant damage,” argues Claude Mikhail, responsible for access to information, in his response to a query from the Journal.
More than 400 funds
The Fund's annual report does not contain a section specifically dedicated to these funds. However, when reviewing the institute's investment list, we identified more than 400 funds with approximately $53 billion invested at the end of 2022 (real estate, stocks, bonds, hedge funds, etc.).
This represented about 13% of the fund's total assets, which at the time stood at $402 billion. The share is the same as in 2018, when the institution held around $40 million in funds.
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How many companies are these funds invested in? What are you? How did the external managers perform? Your management fees? For the Caisse, Quebecers are not entitled to this information.
“It's a shame that it's not public because there are still problems,” laments Ivan Tchotourian, a Laval University professor and governance expert.
Ivan Tchotourian Photo from Laval University website
Funds demand silence
“Due to confidentiality agreements signed at the funds’ request (a standard industry practice), we cannot disclose the underlying assets of each of these funds,” explains a Caisse spokesperson. , Jean-Benoît Houde.
However, Raphaël Duguay, an assistant professor at Yale University and a specialist in transparency in the financial sector, claims that the restrictions cited by the institution are not as widespread as they suggest.
“I think in many cases they have the freedom” to disclose more information about fund investments, he said.
Raphaël Duguay Photo from Yale University website
Virtuous or embarrassing companies?
The Caisse would benefit from proposing certain “virtuous” investments that it makes through external means, notes Mr. Tchotourian.
Greater transparency could also allow him to confront activists who regularly challenge his reputation by suspecting the company of investing in companies that “pollute or violate human rights,” he says.
Bernard Morency, a former vice-president of the Caisse, believes that the Caisse is right to seek external funding. “These people have a network and therefore access to investments that the Caisse doesn’t necessarily have, particularly outside of Canada,” he points out.
Verification rules
On the other hand, Mr Morency believes perhaps it is time for the government to review the Caisse's disclosure rules. These date back at least 20 years, long before the institute invested heavily in private funds and unlisted companies.
“The fund is reasonably transparent […] But it is certain that we live with rules that are more than 20 years old,” he says.
Bernard Morency photo from Laval University website
In the US, the market policeman, the Securities and Exchange Commission, tightened supervision of private funds in August. The latter responded immediately with a legal challenge to the new rules.
The five most popular companies in the fund
Source: Caisse de dépôt etplacement (approximate amounts)
Fees paid by the Caisse to external managers
In 2022: $845 million
In 2021: $999 million
Source: Caisse de dépôt etplacement
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