Public Sector investment manager delivers strong financial returns for 2014-15 | June 22 2015

FREDERICTON (GNB) – The New Brunswick Investment Management Corporation (NBIMC) announced that its gross nominal investment return for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015 was 14.18 percent for total assets under management.

The corporation serves as trustee and investment manager for the Provincial Court Judges’ pension fund, and the investment manager for the Public Service Shared Risk and New Brunswick Teachers’ pension plans as well as two other non-pension public sector clients.

“Our New Brunswick-based team continued to offer well-performing, cost-efficient, global portfolio management services during the year ended March 31, 2015 that significantly exceeded each of our clients’ performance objectives,” said John A. Sinclair, president and chief executive officer of the corporation. “Our investment and portfolio advisory activities and the provision of 28 separate pooled fund investment strategies provide the diversification and hedging opportunities that are critical for prudently managing long-term investment programs.”

The corporation reported that net assets under management as of March 31, 2015, reached an all-time high of $13.0 billion, up from $11.6 billion in the prior year. This increase resulted from $1.629 billion in net investment gains, partially offset by net payouts of $268 million.

NBIMC specifically achieved an overall gross rate of return of 14.05 percent for the pension plans under management, which equated to a 12.00 percent return on a real return (adjusted for inflation) basis.

“The long-term annualized return, since the corporation was formed in 1996, now stands at 7.58 percent which represents more than $10 billion in investment gains, or seventy-five percent of our current assets under management,” said Sinclair.

Annual investment returns for the Provincial Court Judges’ plan, for which NBIMC remains a trustee, were 14.64 percent.

“Most importantly, their annualized real return (after adjusting for inflation) was 12.59 percent, and since our inception it is now 5.59 percent per year, thereby continuing to exceed the long-term real return objective of 4.00 percent that has been set out by the plan’s independent actuary,” said Sinclair.

NBIMC remained a very cost-effective investment manager with total investment expenses of approximately 0.14 percent of the average assets under management during the year, compared to 0.16 percent in the prior fiscal year.

Sinclair said the slowly improving economy and continuation of solid corporate earnings growth contributed to strong equity returns, both in Canada and internationally. He also noted that fixed income returns were also strong during the year, but cautioned that they may face significant future uncertainty due to potential impacts from divergent global central bank policies.

The New Brunswick Investment Management Corporation was formed to operate at arms-length to government as a Crown corporation. Its team of more than 45 New Brunswick-based investment professionals provides innovative, cost-effective investment management solutions that have met the requirements of more than 51,000 pension plan members since 1996.

Further information about the corporation can be found online. The NBIMC annual report for fiscal 2014-15 will be available in the summer of 2015.

22-06-15

MEDIA CONTACT: John A. Sinclair, president and chief executive officer, New Brunswick Investment Management Corporation, 506-444-5800.