AIMCo posts double-digit return after board and CEO purge

Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo), the provincial pension and endowment manager whose board and CEO were purged in November, posted a 12.3 per cent return for the year ended Dec. 31.

The return of AIMCo’s balanced fund, which reduces the impact of portfolios that contain a large amount of fixed income and money market investments, was 12.6 per cent. Like some other large Canadian pensions, AIMCo’s results were slightly below its benchmark return, which incorporated particularly strong equity market returns in 2024.

Total assets under management grew to $179.6 billion from $160.6 billion at the end of 2023.

In November, the Alberta government removed the entire AIMCo board and dismissed chief executive Evan Siddall, who had been at the helm since 2021. Finance Minister Nate Horner said a “reset” was necessary because costs were rising at the fund manager and performance wasn’t keeping up.

A senior bureaucrat was installed as interim CEO and, on Nov.20, former prime minister Stephen Harper was brought on as chair and three of the purged board members returned to AIMCo.

The fund manager’s balanced fund generated a four-year return of 7.8 per cent and a 10-year return of 7.4 per cent, according to figures released Thursday. The total returns for the same periods, which includes the impact of the fixed income-heavy portfolios, were 7.4 per cent and 6.9 per cent.

Last year, AIMCo’s infrastructure and private equity investments posted returns of 12 per cent and 11.8 per cent, respectively, topped only by public equities at 24.7 per cent. The money market and fixed Income portfolio posted a return of 4.6 per cent, while the real estate portfolio, which faced “difficult market conditions,” was down two per cent in 2024.