TORONTO - Ontario's public service pension plan ended 2017 with an annual investment return of 10.8 per cent, which helped it maintain its funded status at about 97 per cent.

The Ontario Pension Board, which administers the plan, says net investment income during the year amounted to $2.5 billion and net assets grew to $26.4 billion by the end of the year.

The return came as OPB continued a strategy of shifting assets from public to private markets last year.

This included increasing its infrastructure portfolio by 15.8 per cent, private equity portfolio by 53.5 per cent, and real estate portfolio by 18.1 per cent.

Overall, public market investments, which include public market equity, fixed income and cash, returned 13.3 per cent for the year.

Private markets investments consisting of real estate, private equity and infrastructure, returned 4.5 per cent.