Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, the €156bn ($204bn) Canadian pension fund with a bent for alternatives investing, performed almost identically for its investors last year as it did in 2005, as its private equity portfolio drove returns to 14.6%.

Last year's double-digit returns were almost equal to the 14.7% returned to investors in 2005 and enabled the pension fund to make €11.7bn for its investors, known as depositors, whose funds make up the majority of the Caisse's assets.