TORONTO, ON, January 17, 2003 - ClaringtonFunds Inc.
("Clarington") announced today that Wells Capital Management
Incorporated ("Wells Capital"), based in San Francisco, will assume
the sub-advisory responsibilities for the Clarington Asia Pacific
Fund, Clarington Global Communications Fund, Clarington RSP Global
Communications Fund and Clarington Global Communications Class of
Clarington Sector Fund Inc. (the "Funds") replacing Montgomery
Asset Management, LLC ("Montgomery") effective January 17,
2003.
Montgomery and Commerzbank, AG, Montgomery's parent company,
have entered into an agreement with Wells Fargo & Company and
its wholly owned subsidiary, Wells Capital, to acquire certain
businesses of Montgomery's investment management practice. This
includes the investment advisory services provided on behalf of
Clarington's Asia Pacific and Global Communications portfolios.
The Funds will continue to be managed according to the same
investment objectives and strategies currently in place. With
respect to the Clarington Asia Pacific Fund, Frank Chiang, the
portfolio's current manager at Montgomery, will move to Wells
Capital and continue to be the lead portfolio manager. Over the
past several years, Stephen Parlett of Montgomery has been
responsible for the day-to-day management of the Clarington Global
Communications Fund and will move to Wells Capital as the lead
portfolio manager of the Clarington Global Communications Fund,
Clarington RSP Global Communications Fund and Clarington Global
Communications Class. In addition, the investment teams will be
supported by the full resources and backing of Wells Capital.
"We have been extremely impressed with the skill of Montgomery's
investment team. To have their expertise complemented with the
tremendous resources of the Wells organization will further
strengthen their management capabilities," says Eric Frape,
Clarington's Vice-President of Product Management. "It has always
been Clarington's strategy to bring world-class money managers to
Canadian investors. We are pleased to have Wells join our carefully
selected team of sub-advisors that have been assembled to create
Clarington's diverse family of funds."
Wells Capital is a well-established institutional asset manager
with a long-standing history of serving institutional clients. The
firm manages over US$107 billion (as of September 30, 2002) for
corporate, public and private entities. Wells Capital is a
subsidiary of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and Wells Fargo & Company,
a premier financial services institution with, US$334 billion in
assets (as of September 30, 2002).
ClaringtonFunds Inc., founded in 1995, has $2.9 billion in
assets (as of December 31, 2002) in 40 mutual funds, with offices
in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. All of Clarington's
mutual funds are sub-advised by well known Canadian and
international investment managers.