Caisse de dépôt CEO sees 'substantial' job cuts coming at real-estate units
Quebec’s public pension manager plans to cut a significant number of jobs as part of a reorganization that will see two real estate units brought in-house to improve efficiency.
“It’s inevitable that there will be job losses” in real estate, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec chief executive Charles Emond told reporters Thursday after CDPQ reported its 2023 results.
CDPQ unveiled plans last month to bring real-estate subsidiaries Ivanhoé Cambridge and Otéra Capital under a single umbrella “to enable greater focus on investment expertise and generate agility and efficiency gains.”
The integration drive, which should be completed by the end of 2025, is expected to generate annual savings of about $100 million from processes, resources and systems. Nathalie Palladitcheff, the Caisse’s top real-estate executive, will leave CDPQ in late April.
“Are we talking about dozens of job cuts? No. We’re talking about something that’s more substantial,” Emond said Thursday. “The $100-million figure won’t all come from job reductions, but it will probably be the most important factor. It’s about maximizing our performance for our depositors, at better cost.”
Emond declined to give specifics on the magnitude of the cutbacks because the restructuring process is continuing.
Ivanhoé Cambridge has 570 employees, compared with about 185 for Otéra Capital, the Caisse said Thursday. Excluding those two units, CDPQ itself has 1,560 employees.
Real estate was the worst performing of the Caisse’s major asset classes in 2023, posting a negative return of 6.2 per cent, according to a statement issued Thursday. CDPQ’s overall return was 7.2 per cent. Property holdings amounted to $46 billion at year-end, or about 11 per cent of CDPQ’s
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