in net assets
for the 11th year in a row
One-year total-fund net return
in investment income
10-year total-fund net return
members satisfied with the service they receive
Growth
We’re focused on delivering long-term growth and performance to remain fully funded.
Impact
We believe we have an opportunity to create a lasting, positive impact.
Culture
We’re creating a culture of experimentation, empowerment and entrepreneurship.
Our investment strategy considers our risk profile, our plan assets and our liabilities. Our long investment time horizon supports our primary goal of generating the investment returns required to fund our members’ current and future pensions. We combine our expertise in bottom-up asset selection with a top-down approach to risk and portfolio construction.
In January 2024, Ontario Teachers’ announced the appointment of Gillian Brown and Stephen McLennan as Chief Investment Officers (CIOs). Learn more about Gillian and Stephen's careers at Ontario Teachers’, their new roles and opportunities they see ahead.
We have continued our focus on growing our international capabilities, which allows us to access the best investment opportunities across several regions and enable enhanced diversification for the Fund. Looking ahead, we are well-placed to drive sustainable global growth across our regional locations and work with our portfolio companies to help drive greater value.
Gross investments by geography1
As at December 31, 2023
1 Percent of total gross fair value of investments based on country of primary listing, location of head office or location of property. Gross investments include securities sold but not yet purchased, and exclude investment-related receivables and exclude investment-related liabilities.
With more than a quarter ($100 billion) of our gross asset portfolio located in Canada, we are a large investor in the country, with local expertise that positions us to identify and earn strong risk-adjusted returns in attractive growth opportunities.
We continued to deepen our capabilities in the region across our Singapore, Hong Kong and Mumbai offices. Last year marked the first full year of operations for our Indian office as well as the 10-year anniversary of our on-the-ground presence in Hong Kong. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on expanding in Asia-Pacific to access the dynamic investment opportunities we see across asset classes in our core regions.
Our team evaluates opportunities across asset classes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) from our office in London. We continue to pursue our strategy of growing and optimizing our investment portfolio as a lead or co-control investor in private equity, infrastructure and real estate, building our venture growth platform, creating value within our portfolio companies and selectively deploying capital across public and private markets.
The U.S. is one of Ontario Teachers’ largest regions for investments with approximately $100 billion in gross investments (approximately 35% of gross investments). The country has been an important driver of returns for the fund since its inception in 1990. Our diverse portfolio in the U.S. covers all our asset classes and is managed locally by 17 investment professionals based in San Francisco and Dallas alongside our Toronto-based teams.
We are committed to making a positive impact as an investor, owner and employer as we believe this is aligned to creating value. Ontario Teachers’ has a long history as a purpose-driven, long-term-oriented investor and employer, and we continue to deepen our approach to pursuing and measuring the positive impact we can have through our investment, operational and employee-led community giving activities.
Harnessing our investment capital and stewardship to deliver compelling returns while making a real-world, positive and measurable impact.
since 2019 (toward 2025 interim target of 45%)
in green assets towards target of $50 billion
In 2023, we initiated decarbonization efforts with 24 private companies across infrastructure, natural resources, equities and real estate. This means we have now initiated engagement with over 80% of the eligible emissions under PART. Eight companies established Paris-aligned targets and are well underway with decarbonizing their operations. The focus for 2024 and 2025 will be to continue to work with these companies and increase the numbers of companies with Paris-aligned targets.
Logoplaste produces more than 12 billion reusable containers annually to hold some of the world’s best-known household consumer products, helping divert waste from landfills. From 2021 to 2023, the company has increased their renewable energy use by 80% and is committed to working towards achieving net zero by 2050 and have submitted their science-based targets.
In June 2023, Brussels Airport announced it will accelerate its ambition to achieve net zero for its Scope 1 and 2 emissions from 2050 to 2030. This will be supported by deploying a new central heating plant powered by renewable electricity, full electrification of the company fleet and further electrification of the service vehicles.
In 2023, we trialed various impact measurement approaches to gain a deeper understanding of impact investing. To do so, we conducted an extensive pilot exercise on impact measurement to stress test our impact investing framework and to help define the outstanding dimensions of our strategy. We engaged over 30 peers in the market, including impact investing advisory firms, to help develop our approach. We recently conducted a pilot assessment of our portfolio company GreenCollar.
We are continuing to embed environmental and equity considerations across our operations.
Employees who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Colour
of workforce identify as women
retention of new hires
Our approach to our People is to prioritize the whole person and create an inclusive environment that promotes belonging. This year, we continued to invest in our teams’ overall well-being and development. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) remained a key area of focus for us, and we made progress on our ongoing ambition to create a culture of belonging and one that enables our team to thrive. Some key areas of focus include:
Provide industry-leading health and family benefits, which includes support for adoption or surrogacy and for gender affirmation procedures for employees or adult family members.
Enhanced our focus on the mental health and well-being of employees and their families with comprehensive policies and benefits, support services and education.
Introduced a mental health training program for leaders as well as a mental health first-aid program for employees.
To ensure accountability, well-being and DEI strategies are embedded into organizational strategy, culture, practices and leader engagement.
Globally, we have introduced a workplace experience across our premises that focuses on flexibility and choice in individual workspaces, collaboration areas, amenities and wellness spaces. In Toronto, significant progress was made on our future workplace at 160 Front Street West. This new building connects our brand and culture through the physical space. The workspace prioritizes wellness, accessibility and inclusion. It will also help us take an active approach on waste reduction through a new platform to track waste from catering requests and cafes. The building will also contribute to a circular economy by prioritizing reusable materials and has achieved LEED2 and WELL3 Certifications to ensure sustainability is a foundational element of our space.
2 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the world's most widely used green building rating system. LEED certification provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient and cost-saving green buildings, which offer environmental, social and governance benefits.
3 WELL is the premier standard for buildings, interior spaces and communities seeking to implement, validate and measure interventions that support and advance human health and wellness.
Leveraging our people to make an impact in our communities.
How we give back plays a critical role in Ontario Teachers’ enterprise-wide approach to making a positive impact.
raised by employees for global causes ⁴
employees contributed time via global Make a Mark Day volunteerism program
4 The giving campaign is employee-led and does not include corporate funds.
Ontario Teachers’ is proud to have a long history of employee giving and volunteerism. There were two major milestones on how we give back in 2023: the introduction of OTPP Cares, a global “always on” giving program offering employees choice in where they donate, and the expansion of our Make a Mark Days volunteerism program across all our global offices.
Our investment program is tailored to generate strong and steady risk-adjusted returns to pay members’ pensions over generations, while also having a positive impact on the people, places and communities our investments touch. Since Ontario Teachers’ inception in 1990, almost 80% of the plan’s pension funding has come from investment returns, with the remainder coming from member and government/designated employer contributions. Net assets5 have grown from $20.1 billion in 1990 to $247.5 billion at the end of 2023.
5 Net assets include investment assets less investment liabilities (net investments), plus the receivables from the Province of Ontario, and other assets less other liabilities.
6 A real rate of return is the net return, or annual percentage of profit earned on an investment, adjusted for inflation.
In 2023, we signed an agreement to sell our majority stake in Shearer’s Foods, capping off a decade-long partnership that saw Shearer’s evolve into one of North America’s largest manufacturers of salty snacks, cookies and crackers.
2023 was a pivotal year for Enwave Energy, a provider of district energy services in which we invested in 2021. The company broke ground on a state-of-the-art heat-pump facility in Toronto that will enable it to produce and distribute low-carbon heat to its customers.
In 2023, Ontario Teachers’, along with its real estate subsidiary Cadillac Fairview (CF), announced it will evolve their operating model to further the growth and diversification of its real estate investments.
It has been a privilege serving as Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan's President and CEO for the last four years. It has also become a common theme in my annual report letters to comment on the turbulent and challenging markets in which we operate. This past year was no different.
As we look to 2024 and beyond, we plan to remain disciplined while delivering our real return target of 4%.
While the global pandemic has thankfully abated, bringing a degree of stability back to our lives, many other challenges remain. High interest rates, persistent inflation, geopolitical tension and an uncertain economic outlook were evident in 2023 impacting most global investors.
With that in mind, how did we do?
We delivered investment income of $5.5 billion representing a positive net return of 1.9%. While this is sufficient to cover our net pension outflows, this is not the return that we aspire to make for our members.
Last year we held a more negative economic outlook than what ultimately transpired. As a result, our portfolio was more conservatively positioned and we did not benefit as much as we could have from strong markets, particularly in the US.
We significantly underperformed our benchmarks in 2023 due primarily to a lower allocation to those public companies that performed extremely well throughout the year, most notably the "magnificent seven" technology stocks. We also made several valuation adjustments in our infrastructure and real estate portfolios to reflect several asset-specific events and a higher interest rate environment.
We are not satisfied with our performance in 2023 and aim for better. That said many of our asset classes benchmark themselves against global stock indices that have been challenging to match. Private assets which have been our best performing investments for many years tend to provide less volatile returns. This was the case in 2023. We remain fully-funded with a healthy preliminary surplus of $19.1 billion. In simple terms, our assets cover our future liabilities, positioning us well to deliver future retirement security for our members.
On the administration side, our team continues to provide excellent support to our 340,000 members with more than 90% satisfied with the service provided.
Since last year’s annual report there have been a number of changes to our senior team. Our Chief Investment Officer Ziad Hindo left the organization after more than 20 years. We thank Ziad for his many contributions.
I took time to reflect on the CIO role given its demands and complexity. Earlier this year I announced a change in our leadership model in investments, appointing Gillian Brown and Stephen McLennan as our new CIOs. This approach will share responsibility between two accomplished and long-serving investors, help us to build our succession pipeline and enable us to sharpen our capital allocation focus moving forward.
We established a Chief Strategy Officer role and appointed Jonathan Hausman, with a mandate to lead an enterprise-wide approach to advance our strategic objectives. Nick Jansa, who leads investment activities in Europe, Middle East and Africa, has joined our Executive Team on a permanent basis to ensure that international perspectives are formally embedded in all our discussions at the most senior level.
We elevated Bruce Crane to head our activities in Asia-Pacific, taking over from Ben Chan who had served the region admirably for five years. Asia-Pacific is an important investment area for the fund, and Bruce will look to optimize our returns from our teams in Singapore, Hong Kong and Mumbai. These internal appointments show the strength that we have at Ontario Teachers’ in our senior team and reinforce a strong commitment to developing our people.
We also announced a revised approach for real estate investing and appointed Pierre Cherki to head up our new in-house real estate team. Our returns in real estate have not been good enough in recent years. We believe taking a more active role in our investment activities there, as we do in other asset groups, will allow us to strengthen and diversify this portfolio.
Another area of focus is to make a positive impact through our activities. We believe this is aligned to creating value and helps to drive incremental returns. We made significant progress during the year in further embedding this focus in how we invest, how we operate and how we give back.
We continued to decarbonize our portfolio and progressed a framework to assess and selectively make, investments that will add to our return targets while making a positive environmental and social impact. Outside of investing, we also further advanced initiatives focused on diversity, equity and inclusion as well as employee well-being. This included the incorporation of these themes into our new office in downtown Toronto (which we are scheduled to move into in Q2 2024), where sustainability, flexibility, inclusivity and well-being were all essential elements of the building design.
Finally, 2023 saw us make significant advancements in the opportunities provided to employees to give their time and donations to the causes that matter to them around the world.
As we look to 2024 and beyond, we plan to remain disciplined in the choices that we make. Our primary focus will be to deliver our long-term target of a 4% real return. That said, we will not take undue risks in the pursuit of better returns.
We will continue to look for attractive opportunities to invest in areas including technology, credit, life sciences and energy transition. Given M&A activity in private asset markets has slowed significantly, we will increase our focus on creating value within our existing portfolio and provide them capital to grow and build advantage in their markets.
While we expect that we will continue to face a dynamic market environment in the near term, I am confident that we are taking the right approach to proactively assess opportunities that will deliver value to the Plan, our employees and our members.
Jo Taylor
President and CEO
I am honoured to chair the board of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and serve the hardworking and dedicated teachers of Ontario, whether they are currently teaching or retired. As the stewards of the plan, we are committed to our members and to delivering on the promise of providing a pension, even during times of uncertainty and change.
I am pleased to report that the plan remains fully funded for the 11th consecutive year with a robust preliminary surplus.
Last year was challenging for global investors. There were global conflicts, increasing geopolitical tensions, higher interest rates, economic disruption, supply chain issues and persistent inflation. Despite these various obstacles, our portfolio showed resilience, securing a 1.9% total-fund net return and ending the year with $247.5 billion in net assets.
I am pleased to report that the plan remains fully funded for the 11th consecutive year with a robust preliminary surplus to ensure stability in contributions and benefits for members.
Our goal is to provide excellent service and ensure retirement security for our members. To achieve this, we constantly adapt to changing market conditions while keeping a long-term perspective. We also focus on partnering with businesses and management to create value and ensure success across our global portfolio.
Diversifying our portfolio across different asset classes, geographies and industries helps us manage risk and lower volatility. A significant part of our portfolio is invested in private companies and infrastructure, which have generated strong and steady returns over time. We believe this diversified approach with an emphasis on private assets supports more consistent returns that will fund teachers’ pensions well into the future.
We currently pay out more in pensions than we receive in contributions, but our aim is to steadily build our net assets towards the goal of $300 billion by 2030 to best position us to remain fully funded.
We strive to live up to our members’ high expectations of service. The plan has made prudent investments in people and technology to ensure we can provide our members convenient, seamless and personalized service, and this increasingly means through digital channels. Our primary performance measure shows that our members remain overwhelmingly satisfied with the service they receive from the plan.
The board has been actively engaged in and supportive of the organization’s efforts to ensure the plan appropriately manages risks and seizes opportunities related to climate change and the transition to a low-carbon future. We are pleased to see the plan continuing to progress towards its ambitious interim targets and instituting the right structures to meet the long-term goal of being net zero by 2050.
A strong, professional, and independent board was a foundational principle when the plan was founded in 1990 and continues to reflect oversight of the plan today. For more than 30 years, the board has been active and engaged, guided by forward-looking governance practices. Our main goal is to guide and collaborate with management on the organization's strategy and operations while challenging, questioning, and ensuring accountability. To fulfill this duty, the board must have a solid grasp and understanding of the markets in which the fund operates around the world.
To this end, the board held its first meeting outside of Toronto in London, UK, our second largest global office. In addition to the regular agenda, the board dedicated time to delve deeper into our regional investments and interests. This included engaging with political leaders and investment partners and directly interacting with our London-based investment teams.
Reflective of the turbulence and pace of change, the board spent considerable time and energy this past year outside the boardroom, thinking about future global trends and alignments, artificial intelligence and how to prepare the plan for shocks and uncertainty.
On behalf of the board, I would like to express my gratitude towards our sponsors - the Province of Ontario and Ontario Teachers’ Federation - for their commitment to renewal and board member independence.
In the past year, we have welcomed two new board members, Tom Wellner and Martine Irman. Both are seasoned executives with several decades of experience leading large organizations. Their expertise elevates the board's capabilities and reinforces our commitment to excellence and long-term success.
Kathleen O’Neill and Lise Fournel retired from the board in 2023 after years of exceptional and loyal service to the plan. On behalf of the entire board, I would like to thank them for their wise counsel and numerous contributions to the plan’s success.
In closing, I want to acknowledge my fellow board members, the executive team led by Jo Taylor and all Ontario Teachers’ employees for their work and dedication in ensuring the continued success of the plan. The board is confident that we have the right team, strategy and structures to navigate choppy and uncharted waters successfully.
Steve McGirr
Chair
