CI Global Asset Management Announces Enhancements to Selected Bond and Canadian Balanced Funds

Changes include management fee reductions on core fixed-income mandates

CI Global Asset Management (“CI GAM”) announces enhancements to its mutual fund lineup, including management fee reductions on several fixed-income funds and changes to the investment strategies of a key Canadian balanced mandate.

The changes, which are effective today, are:

• Management fee reductions to CI Corporate Bond Fund, CI Corporate Bond Class, CI Corporate Bond Corporate Class, CI High Yield Bond Fund and CI High Yield Bond Corporate Class.
• Revisions to the investment strategies of CI Canadian Balanced Fund and CI Canadian Balanced Corporate Class to allow for up to 10% of their portfolios to be invested in private, non-traditional investments, with the goal of further diversifying their portfolios and providing the potential for enhanced risk-adjusted returns.

“These moves reflect the ongoing modernization of our product lineup, ensuring that CI GAM continues to provide a broad selection of effective solutions that meet the needs of Canadian investors in a challenging environment,” said Jennifer Sinopoli, Executive Vice-President and Head of Distribution for CI GAM.

“In addition to building out our mutual fund and ETF lineup with relevant new products, including private markets and other alternative investments, we continue to enhance our existing product lineup. Pricing changes and expanding our presence in alternative investments are just two examples of these improvements.”

Management fee reductions

The base management fees for CI Corporate Bond Fund, CI Corporate Bond Class, CI Corporate Bond Corporate Class (the “CI Corporate Bond funds”) have been reduced by 15 basis points to 0.55% for Series F and P and to 1.05% for Series A. The base management fees for CI High Yield Bond Fund and CI High Yield Bond Corporate Class (the “CI High Yield Bond funds”) have been reduced by 20 basis points to 0.60% for Series F and P and to 1.35% for Series A.

Management fee reductions for these funds have also been applied to certain tiers of the CI Prestige preferred pricing program, which provides discounted pricing as eligible assets invested with CI GAM reach certain thresholds, starting at $100,000. (See table below.)

“These are strong core fixed-income funds with solid track records and a management team with decades of experience investing in corporate credit,” said Ms. Sinopoli. “The management fee reductions announced today make our funds even more competitive in these key bond fund categories.”

CI GAM is one of Canada’s largest fixed-income investment managers, with approximately $23.8 billion (as at September 30, 2023) in fixed-income assets under management across a broad range of asset classes and fund mandates.

The CI Corporate Bond funds invest primarily in a mix of investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds. The funds benefit from the CI GAM team’s active management of the asset mix, as well as its research and analysis into individual corporate issuers. CI Corporate Bond Fund (Series F) holds an overall four-star rating from Morningstar Canada and is first quartile over the one, three, and 10-year periods ending September 30, 2023.¹

The CI High Yield Bond funds invest primarily in high-yield corporate bonds, and benefit from the CI GAM team’s credit analysis of individual holdings, as well as its macroeconomic insights that guide security selection. CI High Yield Bond Fund (Series F) holds an overall four-star rating from Morningstar Canada and is first quartile over the one, three, five and 10-year periods ending September 30, 2023.¹

The new effective management fees are as follows:

* Includes T series as applicable

** There are no changes to the net management fees currently applicable to asset ranges of 1 million or greater.

The changes follow significant reductions to the management fees of CI GAM money market funds earlier this year.

Changes to the CI Canadian Balanced mandate

CI Canadian Balanced Fund and CI Canadian Balanced Corporate Class (the “CI Canadian Balanced funds”) currently invest primarily in a mix of Canadian equity, equity-related and fixed-income securities. Under the revised investment strategies, they may invest up to 10% of their portfolios in private, non-traditional investments, which are those that are not publicly listed or traded. These may include investments in private equity, private credit, private real estate, private infrastructure and venture capital.

“The addition of a private markets component to a balanced portfolio can deliver a number of potential benefits,” said Marc-André Lewis, Executive Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer of CI GAM. “Private markets offer access to a differentiated set of investment opportunities, and their risk-return profile is uncorrelated to public markets. This provides the potential for increased portfolio diversification, lower realized volatility and enhanced risk-adjusted returns.”

CI GAM intends for the CI Canadian Balanced funds to make their allocation to private investments through existing private markets solutions managed by CI GAM. CI GAM has enlisted leading alternative asset managers to participate in its private markets solutions, which include a growth mandate and an income mandate.

The CI Canadian Balanced funds’ revised investment strategies set out a neutral asset mix of approximately 55% equity securities, 40% fixed-income securities and 5% private, non-traditional investments. Generally, their asset mix will be within the following ranges: 50%-60% equity securities; 30%-50% fixed-income securities; and 0-10% private, non-traditional investments. Note that CI Canadian Balanced Corporate Class currently gains exposure to these asset classes indirectly by investing in CI Canadian Balanced Fund. The funds’ investment objectives are not changing.

The investment strategy changes do not apply to CI Canadian Balanced Pooled Fund, a mandate offered to institutional investors.

About CI Global Asset Management

CI Global Asset Management (“CI GAM”) is one of Canada’s largest investment management companies. It offers a wide range of investment products and services and is on the Web at www.ci.com. CI GAM is a subsidiary of CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX), an integrated global asset and wealth management company with approximately $421.0 billion in assets as at September 30, 2023.

1) Performance and rankings

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund investments. Please read the prospectus before investing. The indicated rates of return are the historical annual compounded total returns net of fees and expenses payable by the fund (except for figures of one year or less, which are simple total returns) including changes in security value and reinvestment of all dividends/distributions and do not take into account sales, redemption, distribution or optional charges or income taxes payable by any securityholder that would have reduced returns. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently, and past performance may not be repeated.

This communication is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase mutual funds managed by CI Global Asset Management and is not, and should not be construed as, investment, tax, legal or accounting advice, and should not be relied upon in that regard. Every effort has been made to ensure that the material contained in this document is accurate at the time of publication. Individuals should seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding any particular investment. Investors should consult their professional advisors prior to implementing any changes to their investment strategies. These investments may not be suitable to the circumstances of an investor.

^©2023 Morningstar Research Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Morningstar Rating is for Series F only; other series may have different performance characteristics.

The Morningstar Absolute Quartile Rankings are compiled by sorting the funds by returns relative to the mutual funds within the same peer group and range from 1 to 4 for all time periods covered and can change monthly. The top performing 25% of funds in each fund category are assigned a ranking of 1, the next 25% a 2, etc.

Morningstar Ratings reflect performance as of September 30, 2023 and are subject to change monthly. The ratings are calculated from a fund’s 3, 5 and 10-year returns measured against 91-day Treasury bill and peer group returns. For each time period the top 10% of the funds in a category get five stars. The Overall Rating is a weighted combination of the 3, 5 and 10-year ratings. For greater detail, see www.morningstar.ca.

CI Global Asset Management is a registered business name of CI Investments Inc.

©CI Investments Inc. 2023. All rights reserved.

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