The value of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the province’s largest pension manger, fell by $38 billion last year, mainly because of falling stock prices, La Presse reported on Friday.

The Montreal-based newspaper said preliminary figures showed the value of the Caisse’s holdings dropped from $155.4 billion at the start of 2008 to $120 billion by the end of the year.

Speculation over the Caisse’s finances has been swirling for months.

In January, Richard Guay resigned as president and CEO of the pension fund for medical reasons, after just four months on the job.

In addition to suffering losses of billions of dollars in 2008 from the falling stock market, the Caisse is expected take a large writedown from its holdings of asset-backed commercial paper.

The Caisse owns non-bank ABCP that was originally valued at $12.6 billion.

The pension fund manager is expected to release its final results toward the end of February.