Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) grew ILS investments 35% in 2022

Large Canadian institutional retirement fund, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), grew its allocation to insurance-linked securities (ILS) investments in 2022, with the asset class nearing 1% of its overall portfolio by the end of the year.

HOOPP reported in its latest annual report, that its investment allocation into insurance-linked securities (ILS) and ILS funds grew by 35% during the last year.

That was at a faster rate than the previous year, when it added 31% to the ILS portfolio.

By the end of 2022, HOOPP’s ILS asset allocation had reached C$973 million (approx. US $718.7m), up from C$721 million (approx. US $575m) at the end of 2021.

The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) started allocating to insurance-linked securities (ILS), largely via insurance-linked funds, as well as some direct investments into other reinsurance-related securities, in late 2019.

Then, come early 2020, HOOPP hired Bernard Van der Stichele, an experienced ILS and reinsurance sector executive, as a Portfolio Manager for its Insurance-linked Securities allocation.

HOOPP was seen to be shifting away from an equities focus, targeting a range of alternative asset classes including insurance-linked securities (ILS), as a way to help soften the blow of the market volatility seen as a result of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

At the end of 2019, HOOPP’s ILS allocation had reached roughly C$260 million in size, before 2020 saw HOOPP building on the ILS investment program, more than doubling it to reach C$549 million at the end of that year (which was roughly US $440m at the time).

In 2021, HOOPP continued to steadily grow the ILS strategy, building it up to C$721 million (US 575m) by the end of that year, representing growth of just over 31% in Canadian dollars.

2022 saw further growth in the ILS allocation at a time when HOOPP’s overall net assets shrank somewhat.

HOOPP had reported total net assets of C$114.4 billion at the end of 2021, but by the end of 2022 that had fallen to C$103.7 billion.

With the ILS allocation growing 35% to reach C$973 million in 2022, it means HOOPP ended the last year with ILS investments nearing a 1% share of its total portfolio size.

The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) is just one of the numerous pension fund and major ILS investors we track in our directories here.