The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has changed the mandates of the international equity portfolios managed at the Montreal office by adopting index-based management rather than active management. The change affects 10 employees.

The change does not affect the other international equity portfolios, such as those managed externally, nor does it affect any other Caisse portfolio, the Caisse said Thursday.

“The decision was not related to the current financial crisis or to ABCP and that it was the result of an evaluation begun several months ago. The returns obtained to date do not justify the greater effort required for active management as opposed to an index-based approach,” the Caisse said in a release.

“Such a change is in the normal course of business,” it added.

The value of the in-house international equity portfolios that will now be managed on an index basis represents about 9% of the assets managed by the equity markets group and about 2.9% of depositors’ net assets, as at Dec. 31, 2007, the Caisse said.

The Caisse manages funds primarily for Quebec public and private pension and insurance plans. As at Dec. 31, 2007, it held $155.4 billion of net assets.

IE