Canadian giants CDPQ and Ivanhoe Cambridge undergo renaming | Daily Hive

Burnaby's Metropolis at Metrotown mall (left) and Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain Canada Line (right), which are assets of La Caisse. (Kenneth Chan)

One of Canada’s largest institutional investors and its global real estate arm are uniting under a single new name and brand.

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) is now simply known as “La Caisse,” and its real estate subsidiary, Ivanhoe Cambridge, will now also adopt the same La Caisse name.

“With this change, the real estate portfolio will benefit from a distinctive identity, which is based on the organization’s heritage, unique mission and leading investments in Québec and internationally,” reads a release.

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La Caisse manages money for public pension and insurance plans in Quebec — basically, it invests the retirement savings of millions of people. Created by Quebec’s provincial government in 1965, it started with a local focus but has since grown into a global investment giant to maximize the potential retirement savings for Quebecers.

Ivanhoe Cambridge was acquired by CDPQ in 1990, as part of the pension fund’s strategy to diversify its investments beyond the traditional portfolios of stocks and bonds.

The real estate firm has historically been known more for its commercial retail and office properties, but in more recent years, it has been diversifying its assets to include residential and industrial properties.

Notable prominent properties owned by Ivanhoe Cambridge include Metropolis at Metrotown in Metro Vancouver, where the company also owns a major partial stake of CF Richmond Centre and Guildford Town Centre. It also owns CrossIron Mills in Calgary, Southgate Centre in Edmonton, Montreal Eaton Centre in Montreal, as well as Vaughan Mills and a major stake in CIBC Square in Greater Toronto.

As of the end of 2024, La Caisse managed $473 billion in net assets — including a real estate portfolio of $42 billion, across over 1,500 properties in Quebec and around the world — ranking it among the largest institutional investors in North America. Its investments span more than 60 countries, including 22 per cent in Canada, 46 per cent in the United States, 17 per cent in Europe, 11 per cent in Asia Pacific, and four per cent in Latin America.

CIBC Square towers in downtown Toronto, July 2025. (Fotografiko Eugen/Shutterstock)

REM metro station in Montreal. (Kenneth Chan)

La Caisse also owns and operates Montreal’s new $8.3-billion REM metro rail network – a 67-km-long, fully grade-separated, automated rail rapid transit system with 21 stations. The first phase opened in 2023, and the remaining phases, including a link between downtown Montreal and Montreal-Trudeau International Airport in about 20 minutes, will open in 2027.

It also has a major stake in the public-private partnership that designed, built, and operates Vancouver’s SkyTrain Canada Line, and has sizeable stakes in the Eurostar high-speed rail network, Sydney Metro, London Heathrow Airport, Port of Brisbane, and Australian electric utility TransGrid. It also owns a part of engineering firm AtkinsRealis (formerly SNC Lavalin) and train manufacturer Alstom.

Another real estate division of La Caisse is Otera Capital. It specializes in commercial real estate financing across Canada, providing a range of loans, including conventional first mortgages, construction loans, and term financing for income-producing properties, such as office buildings, shopping malls, industrial complexes, and multi-family residential developments.

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