Caisse CEO Michael Sabia’s 2012 compensation up 11 per cent to $1 million

MONTREAL – The head of pension fund manager Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec saw his compensation increase by 10.6 per cent to a little more than $1 million in 2012.

CEO Michael Sabia’s total remuneration was up from $940,000 in 2011 after he took $100,000 more of his bonus, which is partially deferred to future years.

Sabia is entitled to $500,000 in base salary and $1.2 million a year in bonuses, some of which must be deferred and tied to the performance of the pension manager.

Sabia also received $500,000 in bonuses in 2012, up from $400,000 in 2012.

The $700,000 in deferred bonuses will be paid in 2015 after being adjusted to the Caisse’s average return from the three previous years, the Montreal-based institution said Tuesday in its annual report.

The total compensation of the six top Caisse officials increased 0.8 per cent to $6.52 million.

Most of the 2,678 employees of the Caisse and its subsidiaries received bonuses, which totalled $35.3 million in 2012, up from $31.4 million a year earlier.

The Caisse generated a 9.6 per cent return on investments in 2012, raising its assets to $176.2 billion from $159 billion in 2011.

The returns for its top seven depositors ranged between 8.2 and 10.5 per cent. The Quebec Pension Plan achieved the top returns after gaining just 2.8 per cent in 2011.

By slightly beating the benchmark index of 9.3 per cent, the Caisse added $14.9 billion in net investment returns and $2.3 billion in net deposits.

Despite disastrous results in 2008, which saw its asset base drop by nearly 23 per cent to $120 billion, the Caisse’s annualized returns over the last decade are 6.7 per cent.