CAISSE DE DEPOT ET PLACEMENT DU QUEBEC

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, or CDPQ for short, is a pension manager that was founded in 1965 by the National Assembly of Quebec. The company was founded in order to manage the funds of the Quebec Pension Plan, expanding to also manage the funds of other pension and insurance plans including the Supplemental Pension Plan for Employees of the Québec Construction Industry in 1970, and the Government and Public Employees Retirement Plan, Pension Plan of Management Personnel, and Fonds de la santé et de la sécurité du travail in 1973. Since 1974, CDPQ has been operating the largest equity portfolio in Canada. In the 1970s, the company would shift its focus to equity and enter the real estate market, acquiring the Place Delta complex in 1980. The company would diversify its holdings further during the 1980s through the 1990s, acquiring Steinberg’s grocery store chain and beginning to make investments in real estate abroad, also beginning to manage the Retirement Plans Sinking fund. By 1986, CDPQ would have a total of $28 billion in assets under management. In 1996, the company’s real estate group would grow to become the largest real estate owner in Quebec and the second largest in Canada. Past the turn of the millennia, CDPQ expanded its acquisitions by investing in foreign airports, making its first infrastructure acquisitions in 2005 and purchasing the Legacy Hotels Real Estate Investment Trust a year later. The company would go through a thorough restructuring in order to “maximize efficiency, focus on core competencies, and strengthen risk management to support its long-term performance.” The company is a leading institutional fund manager, investing in financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, and real estate on a globl scale. CDPQ now services 32 depositors that are primarily composed of public and private pensions and insurance funds. The company currently has approximately $180 billion in total assets and employs 838 people within various teams.