Page 7 - Transforming To Stay Successful

e’ve been investing for the public sector since the 80s, originally
working as part of the provincial government. Then, back in ’99,
W we became an independent organization with the Public Sector
Pension Plans Act. And the rest, as they say, is history.

We officially opened our doors as “bcIMC” in 2000 with 63 employees and
$61.3 billion assets under management (AUM). Since then, we’ve grown to
over 350 staff, $135.5 billion AUM and counting — with no signs of slowing
down soon.

In our early days, we were highly dependant on the public markets, primarily
following a passive strategy (meaning we invested mostly in stocks and bonds,
and based a fund’s portfolio on an index) — and that worked well for us in
those days. In the late 80s, that’s all we needed to meet our clients’ actuarial
rate of return. But the economic and business conditions that drove our
success in those days simply don’t exist anymore…

As the markets changed, so did we. Gradually we entered into other asset
classes: starting with Canadian and U.S. equities in 1990, real estate in 1991,
then mortgages and private equity in 1995, and infrastructure next in 2005.
In those days, we relied on for-profit external managers to deploy our
clients’ capital.
Our organization has transitioned before. Successfully. And we’ll do it again.
It’s all part of working in the ever-changing capital markets.

THE WAY WE WERE 7