Ontario Teachers' announces 2023 results

• Achieved a one-year total-fund net return of 1.9%.
• Underperformed benchmark return of 8.7% resulting in negative value add of $15.8 billion.
• Delivered a ten-year annualized total-fund net return of 7.6% and return since inception of 9.3%.
• Retained a $19.1 billion preliminary funding surplus and is fully funded for the 11^th straight year.
• Reduced portfolio carbon emissions intensity by 39% compared to 2019 baseline and 10% relative to 2022.
• Announced the establishment of an in-house real estate asset class group.

TORONTO, March 12, 2024 /CNW/ - Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') today announced a one-year total-fund net return of 1.9% for the year ended December 31, 2023.¹ The net-return for 2023 was driven primarily by strong returns from public equities and credit, offset by losses in infrastructure and real estate. Net assets grew to $247.5 billion, reflecting incremental progress toward a strategic goal to reach $300 billion in net assets by 2030. Investment income of $5.5 billion and contributions of $3.3 billion for the year were largely offset by benefits paid of $7.6 billion and administrative expenses of $0.9 billion.

Results reflect underperformance relative to the benchmark return of 8.7% by 6.8%, or $15.8 billion in negative value add². This compares to a total-fund net return of 4.0% in 2022, which beat the benchmark by 1.8% or $4.4 billion in value add.

The benchmark underperformance was driven by several factors, including a relative underexposure in listed equities which performed strongly through the year as well as valuation adjustments in the infrastructure and real estate portfolios due to higher interest rates and asset-specific events that negatively impacted select investments.

The plan is fully funded as at January 1, 2024, with a $19.1 billion preliminary funding surplus. This marks the plan's 11^th consecutive year being fully funded (meaning plan assets exceed future pension liabilities), underscoring the plan's long-term financial health and stability.

"While we advanced key strategic areas of focus in 2023, we did not generate investment results to desired levels. This was largely due to positioning the portfolio for a more challenging economic environment than ultimately transpired, our relatively lower exposure to public equities, and valuation adjustments in certain real estate and infrastructure assets," said Jo Taylor, President & Chief Executive Officer.  "With that said, we remain fully funded and delivered a positive return, which are both important financial metrics for our members. As a pension plan with multi-generational liabilities, our investment strategy is intentionally designed for stable long-term returns."

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¹  All figures are as at December 31, 2023, and denominated in Canadian dollars unless noted.

²  Value-add is the amount of return in excess of (below) benchmarks after deducting management fees, transaction costs and administrative costs allocated to the Active programs (includes annual incentives but does not include long-term incentives).

Investment performance
Given the plan's liabilities stretch decades into the future, results over longer periods is particularly important. Ontario Teachers' has delivered an annualized total-fund net return of 9.3% since inception in 1990, and five- and 10-year annualized total-fund net returns of 7.2% and 7.6%, respectively.

Time period	One-year	Five-year	10-year	Since inception
Total-fund net return	1.9 %	7.2 %	7.6 %	9.3 %

The table below summarizes Ontario Teachers' investment returns and related benchmark returns by investment asset class for the current and previous year.

Portfolio Performance by Asset Class (all figures as at December 31)

	2023		2022
Fund returns (%)^3	Actual	Benchmark	Actual	Benchmark
Equity
Public equity	20.0	20.3	(12.5)	(10.2)
Private equity	3.6	16.3	6.1	(3.9)
Venture growth^4	(0.7)	12.8	(12.1)	(12.1)
	7.4	17.1	0.1	(5.9)
Fixed income
Bonds	0.6	0.6	(5.9)	(5.9)
Real-rate products	7.3	7.3	7.3	7.3
	1.2	1.2	(3.5)	(3.5)
Inflation sensitive
Commodities	(0.5)	(0.5)	19.5	19.5
Natural resources	0.2	3.3	29.6	28.2
Inflation hedge	(3.0)	(3.0)	9.2	9.2
	(1.0)	(0.2)	19.2	18.7
Real assets
Real estate	(5.9)	2.0	(3.5)	6.7
Infrastructure	(2.8)	7.6	18.7	15.1
	(4.1)	5.3	8.3	11.1
Credit	9.1	9.6	3.6	0.0
Total-fund net return	1.9	8.7	4.0	2.3

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³  The total-fund net return is calculated after deducting transaction costs, management fees and investment administrative costs. Asset-class returns are calculated before deducting investment administrative costs.

⁴  Effective January 1, 2023, the Innovation asset class is included in Equity - Venture growth and is benchmarked to an active benchmark. Previously, Venture growth was benchmarked to its actual return during an initial incubation period. Prior period returns for Equity and Credit have not been restated. 

The table below summarizes Ontario Teachers' portfolio mix by asset class for the current and previous year.  

Detailed Asset Mix (all figures as at December 31)

	2023		2022
Asset Class	$ billions	%	$ billions	%
Equity
Public equity	25.4	10 %	21.9	9 %
Private equity	58.5	24 %	58.3	24 %
Venture growth^5	7.5	3 %	7.3	3 %
	91.4	37 %	87.5	36 %
Fixed income
Bonds	85.9	35 %	76.2	31 %
Real-rate products	9.9	4 %	9.8	4 %
	95.8	39 %	86.0	35 %
Inflation sensitive
Commodities	22.2	9 %	25.0	10 %
Natural resources	11.4	5 %	10.1	4 %
Inflation hedge	11.8	5 %	12.7	5 %
	45.4	19 %	47.8	19 %
Real assets
Real estate	28.2	12 %	28.1	12 %
Infrastructure	39.2	16 %	39.8	16 %
	67.4	28 %	67.9	28 %
Credit	38.6	16 %	35.2	14 %
Absolute return strategies	19.5	8 %	18.7	8 %
Funding and other^6	(114.2)	(47 %)	(98.8)	(40 %)
Net investments^7	243.9	100 %	$244.1	100 %

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⁵  Effective January 1, 2023, investments of $7,438 million formerly included in the Innovation asset class are now included in Equity - Venture growth ($7,331 million) and Credit ($107 million) asset classes.

⁶  Includes funding for investments (term debt, bond repurchase agreements, implied funding from derivatives, unsecured funding, and liquidity reserves) and overlay strategies that manage the foreign exchange risk for the total fund.

⁷  Comprises investments less investment-related liabilities. Total net assets of $247.5 billion at December 31, 2023 (2022 – $247.2 billion) include net investments and other net assets and liabilities of $3.6 billion (2022 – $3.1 billion).

Impact of currency on returns
In 2023, the fund experienced a foreign currency loss of $2.2 billion as assets denominated in foreign currencies depreciated in value when converted back into Canadian dollars. This corresponds with a negative impact from currency on our total-fund net return of 0.8%.

This loss was primarily driven by the depreciation of the US dollar compared to the Canadian dollar. The fund's net exposure to the US dollar is significantly larger than any other foreign currency.

Volatility management
Considerable attention is paid to managing volatility of returns alongside other growth metrics. Volatility is a common way of measuring risk or uncertainty. CEM Benchmarking, a market leader in analyzing performance and cost data, measures risk-adjusted returns of 289 pension plans from all over the world. CEM assesses Ontario Teachers' to be a top performer when it comes to risk-adjusted returns over a 10-year period ending December 31, 2022⁸, placing us in the 100th percentile compared to a peer group of 18 Canadian and global plans suggested by CEM as similar to Ontario Teachers' in size.⁹

Ontario Teachers' has a Sharpe ratio of 2.01 over the past 10 years versus our peer group median of 0.80. A higher Sharpe ratio signifies higher returns with lower volatility when comparing portfolios.

Investment highlights
Ontario Teachers' manages approximately 80% of its assets internally, with a focus on deploying capital into active strategies around the world. Investment highlights in 2023 include:  

Equities

• Acquired a majority stake in Sevana Bioenergy LLC and made a capital commitment to develop renewable natural gas projects across North America.
• Invested in 7IM, a leading UK wealth manager that excels in technology-driven wealth and investment solutions.
• Supported BroadStreet Partners Inc. in their acquisition of Westland Insurance, one of the largest independent insurance brokers in Canada.
• Entered an agreement to sell an equity stake in SeaCube Container Leasing Ltd., one of the world's largest operating lessors of intermodal containers.
• Entered a definitive agreement to sell Shearer's Foods, a leading contract manufacturer and private label supplier serving the snack industry in North America.

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⁸  CEM Benchmarking study is dated December 31, 2022. This is necessary to include comparable data for all funds from 2022, the most recent year where all return data is available given funds report with different year-end dates.  

⁹  CEM Benchmarking utilizes the Sharpe ratio to assess risk-adjusted return, which is calculated using the 10-year net return, less the 10-year risk-free rate, divided by the standard deviation of excess return. The Sharpe ratio is a commonly used method of comparing the return of an investment with its risk. 

Infrastructure & Natural Resources

• Acquired a significant equity ownership position in Diamond Communications, one of the largest privately held U.S. wireless communications infrastructure platforms.
• Acquired a 25% equity stake in Sweetwater Royalties, a base metals, industrial minerals and renewable energy royalty company.
• Acquired a significant majority stake in GreenCollar, a leading Australian environmental markets platform.

Real Estate

• Acquired a co-control position in Compass Datacenters, a company that designs and constructs data centres for some of the world's largest hyperscalers and cloud providers.
• Acquired a significant majority stake in Lincoln Property Company's Residential Division to support and grow multifamily property across the United States. The company was subsequently rebranded as Willow Bridge Property Company.
• Through our real estate joint venture with Boreal IM, acquired logistics assets in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany.

Teachers' Venture Growth

• Invested in Xpressbees, one of India's market-leading and fastest-growing third-party end-to-end logistics platforms.
• Participated in the latest funding round for Databricks, the world's leading lakehouse platform on the cloud that unifies data, analytics, and artificial intelligence.

Corporate news

• After year-end, announced the appointment of Stephen McLennan and Gillian Brown, two longstanding Ontario Teachers' leaders, as Chief Investment Officers focused on portfolio construction and alpha generation, respectively. Gillian Brown was appointed Chief Investment Officer, Public & Private Investments and Stephen McLennan was appointed Chief Investment Officer, Asset Allocation.
• Also following year-end, announced the appointment of Jonathan Hausman as Chief Strategy Officer, a newly established, cross-enterprise strategy role. Jonathan joined Ontario Teachers' in 2004 and has led Global Investment Strategy (GIS) since 2017.
• Appointed Pierre Cherki as Executive Managing Director, Real Estate, a new investment leadership position that oversees the newly established in-house real estate team.
• Alongside Cadillac Fairview (CF), announced an evolution to our real estate operating model that will see the establishment of an in-house real estate asset class group at Ontario Teachers'. This aligns the real estate investment approach to that of other asset groups, where investment capabilities are embedded within Ontario Teachers' to enable information sharing, co-sourcing, and best practices across geographies. Moving forward Ontario Teachers' will focus on global real estate investing and portfolio management, while CF will focus on growth, diversification, and densification of its real estate portfolio in Canada.
• Appointed Bruce Crane as Executive Managing Director, Asia-Pacific. Bruce joined Ontario Teachers' in 2020 and most recently led the Infrastructure & Natural Resources team in Asia-Pacific.

Climate ambition
As part of its journey to achieve net zero on its investment activities by 2050, Ontario Teachers' has established industry-leading interim targets to reduce portfolio carbon emissions intensity¹⁰ by 45% by 2025 and 67% by 2030, compared to its 2019 baseline. At the end of 2023, Ontario Teachers' has reduced portfolio carbon emissions intensity by 39% compared to our 2019 baseline and 10% relative to 2022. This reduction is primarily driven by an increase in market value of assets and a decrease in absolute emissions of our portfolio carbon footprint.

In 2023, Ontario Teachers' wholly owned subsidiary, Ontario Teachers' Finance Trust (OTFT), issued its fourth green bond with the $1 billion in proceeds being invested in companies or assets that enable the net-zero transition, reduce emissions, and build a sustainable economy. Net proceeds from OTFT's green bond issuances are fully allocated to eligible green assets in our portfolio.

Investment costs
Ontario Teachers' is committed to cost-effectiveness and links costs to the investment value creation process. Total investment costs, including administrative expenses, transaction costs, and external management fees, totaled $1,855 million (75 cents per $100 of average net assets) in 2023, compared to $1,886 million (78 cents per $100 of average net assets) in 2022. The decrease in investment costs compared to the previous year is largely due to lower transactions driven by a decrease in mergers and acquisitions activity during the year, partially offset by a small increase in administrative expenses.

Note to Editors: To read our annual report, please click here.

About Ontario Teachers'
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') is a global investor with net assets of $247.5 billion as at December 31, 2023. We invest in more than 50 countries in a broad array of assets including public and private equities, fixed income, credit, commodities, natural resources, infrastructure, real estate and venture growth to deliver retirement income for 340,000 working members and pensioners.

Our more than 450 investment professionals operate in key financial centres around the world and bring deep expertise in a broad range of sectors and industries. We are a fully funded defined benefit pension plan and have earned an annual total-fund net return of 9.3% since the plan's founding in 1990. At Ontario Teachers', we don't just invest to make a return, we invest to shape a better future for the teachers we serve, the businesses we back, and the world we live in. For more information, visit otpp.com and follow us on LinkedIn. 

Contact

Dan Madge
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
Phone: [phone]
Email: [email protected]

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¹⁰  For further information on our methodologies, please see page 151 of our Annual Report.

Forward Looking Statements
This annual report contains forward-looking information and statements that are intended to enhance the reader's ability to assess the future financial and business performance of Ontario Teachers'. Forward-looking information and statements include all information and statements regarding Ontario Teachers' current beliefs, targets, intentions, plans, and expectations concerning its objectives, future performance, strategies, and financial results, as well as any other information or statements that relate to future events or circumstances and which do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts. Forward-looking information and statements often but not always use words such as "trend," "potential," "opportunity," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "current," "intention," "estimate," "position," "assume," "outlook," "continue," "remain," "maintain," "sustain," "seek," "achieve," and similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could," "may" and similar expressions. Because the forward-looking information and statements are based on estimates and assumptions that are subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties, many of which are beyond Ontario Teachers' control or are subject to change, actual results or events could be materially different. Although Ontario Teachers' believes that the estimates and assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, such information and statements are not guarantees of future performance and, accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information or statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. Ontario Teachers' forward-looking information and statements speak only as of the date of this annual report or as of the date they are made and should be regarded solely as Ontario Teachers' current plans, estimates and beliefs. Ontario Teachers' does not intend or undertake to publicly update such statements to reflect new information, future events, and changes in circumstances or for any other reason.

Cautionary Statement
In connection with our multi-faceted climate strategy, we have made certain commitments and set certain goals and targets ("Targets"). In establishing our Targets, we relied on various laws, guidelines, taxonomies, methodologies, frameworks, market practices and other standards (collectively, "Standards") and also made good faith assumptions and estimates in establishing our Targets. Given the complex and evolving nature of the global response to climate change, these Standards may change over time, and our assumptions and estimates may prove incorrect or inaccurate for reasons we cannot foresee or predict.

To monitor and report on our progress toward our Targets, we rely on data obtained from our portfolio companies and other third-party sources. Although we believe these sources are reliable, we have not independently verified this data, or assessed the assumptions underlying such data, and cannot guarantee its accuracy or completeness. We also attempt to improve accuracy in the data through an independent limited assurance review.  The data may be of varying quality or usefulness and may change over time as Standards evolve. These factors could impact our Targets and our ability to achieve them.

SOURCE Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan