The Alberta Investment Management Corp. grew its assets under management to C$194.7B (US$137.06B) in 2025, gaining C$13.1B in net investment income, with public equities and private credit leading performance.
The Edmonton-based investment manager reported a 7.6% return for its Balanced Fund and a 7.5% Total Fund return for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025, according to its latest annual report.
Both the Balanced Fund and Total Fund underperformed their respective benchmarks by 2.7 percentage points, which AIMCo attributed largely to the way private market investments are benchmarked against public market equivalents, particularly during a period when private equity and real estate continued to contend with subdued exit activity and valuation pressures.
Public equities were the strongest-performing asset class, returning 19.4% against a 20.0% benchmark. Across its C$17.7B private credit portfolio, mortgages returned 5.8% while private debt & loans gained 7.9%. Public Fixed Income returned 1.0%, ahead of its 0.9% benchmark.
In the report, Ray Gilmour, AIMCo’s chief executive officer, said the Private Debt & Loan portfolio outperformed its benchmark by 3.6 percentage points.
“The results reflect the diversified portfolio of predominantly senior secured, floating-rate exposures, a disciplined underwriting process and portfolio construction focused on relative value.”
He also highlighted the performance of AIMCo’s Mortgages portfolio, which landed 1.3 percentage points above the benchmark. That team, he said, logged its busiest year ever, by volume, in terms of capital deployment.
“Yield curves steepened as front-end rates fell on expectations of policy easing, while credit spreads remained tight in a resilient economic environment.”
Private equity returned 3.0% against a 17.7% benchmark, infrastructure gained 3.3% versus an 8.1% benchmark and real estate declined 2.2% compared with a 2.8% benchmark.
“Private equity activity remained muted amid tight liquidity, though portfolio company performance was generally steady,” said Gilmour, noting long-term results held strong with a 10-year annualized return of 10.4%.
“We are seeing early signs of stabilization in Real Estate, but progress remains uneven by geography and sector and that showed in the -2.2% return. Our efforts to reposition the portfolio continue.”
While infrastructure continued to demonstrate defensive qualities, AIMCo’s Renewable Resources portfolio — a global portfolio of land-centric, high-quality timberland and agricultural assets — returned -0.5% against an 8.2% benchmark. Gilmour said the portfolio was impacted by regulatory uncertainty and volatility.
“Across both portfolios, active management and disciplined asset selection remain central to our approach, supported by strong partners and a long-term investment horizon.”
Overall, Gilmour described 2025 as another year of geopolitical uncertainty and market volatility, saying the organization remained focused on disciplined execution and long-term investing.
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