CPPIB fixes Celtic House return data glitch

For all of the people working at CPP Investment Board, it would appear that data gremlins drive them crazy as well, from time to time. Turns out that a blog uncovered errors in the Q1 2008 return data that was posted in August. This data is meant to provide Canadians with some insight into how the CPPIB’s fund managers are performing with our money.

Here’s what they posted then (see prior post “CPPIB Canadian general partner Q1 2008 performance numbers” August 25-08):

Celtic House VP Fund II (2002 US$)
$13.5MM, $13.1MM (97%), $62.6MM, $73.2MM (+458.8%)

Celtic House VP Fund III (2005 US$):
$50MM, $19.1MM (38.2%), $3.6MM, $3.7MM (-80.6%)

(The figures cover four categories: CPPIB’s commitment, paid-in-capital (which tells you how much of the fund is invested in deals and/or drawn to pay management fees) reported value, and reported value + distributions (which tells you what the notional simple return of the fund is against the paid-in-capital figure). That figure is based in large part on what the manager believes the portfolio is worth as at March 31, 2008, subject to GAAP fair value accounting. MM means millions.)

When we posted the quarterly stats, tongues began to wag in th eindustry about the stark contrasts of Celtic’s two funds; one had a blow-out quarter and one had taken a pasting. Or so it appeared. Turns out that those wonky figures were wrong. At some point over the past few weeks, the data was corrected on the website:

Celtic House VP Fund II (2002 US$):
$13.5MM, $13.1MM (97%), $10.5MM, $21.1MM (+61%)

Celtic House VP Fund III (2005 US$):
$50.0MM, $19.1MM (38%), $13.9MM, $14.0MM (-27%)

MRM