Canadian pension funds are already overweight on Canadian equities
Canada’s eight largest pension funds are big players in the world of institutional investing with more than $1 trillion under management collectively. Pressure is being applied for the funds to invest a greater proportion of their money in Canadian stocks. Yet, 18 per cent of their portfolio is already invested in domestic markets, explains Associate Professor Sebastien Betermier in an interview with Les Affaires. While this is less than the 33 per cent domestic market allocation that these funds had in 2013, it is already disproportionately high, relative to the size of global markets overall. “When pension funds are looking for undervalued assets, it benefits them to be able to look anywhere in the world, and not only in Canada,” says Betermier.