Toronto, Ontario June 10, 2005 - ClaringtonFunds Inc.
("Clarington"), a subsidiary of Clarington Corporation (TSX: CFI),
today announced several proposed changes to its fund family
designed to provide greater cost efficiency for its mutual fund
investors.
Clarington proposes to merge thirteen of its mutual funds into
other Clarington funds. It expects that these changes will reduce
the ongoing expenses to investors in the merged funds due to the
increased economies of scale that should result from the increase
in net assets per fund arising from the consolidation of the
merging funds.
These proposed changes are subject to mutual fund investor and
regulatory approval.
"As always, we are committed to supporting financial advisors
with the products and service they need to serve the investing
public more effectively. Cost efficiency is an important issue and
these changes should lower the cost of investing while continuing
to meet the needs of our mutual fund investors", says Terence
Stone, Clarington's Chairman and Founder.
Proposed Fund Mergers
At a special meeting scheduled for August 17, 2005, Clarington
will be asking affected mutual fund investors to approve the
following proposed mergers:
| Terminating Fund |
|
Continuing Fund |
| Asia Pacific Fund |
will merge into |
Global Equity Fund |
| Canadian Growth Fund |
will merge into |
Canadian Equity Fund |
| Global Communications Fund |
will merge into |
Global Equity Fund |
| Global Core Portfolio |
will merge into |
Canadian Core Portfolio |
| Global Health Sciences Class |
will merge into |
Global Equity Class |
| Global Value Class |
will merge into |
Global Equity Class |
| International Equity Fund |
will merge into |
Global Equity Fund |
| Navellier U.S. All Cap Class |
will merge into |
Navellier U.S. All Cap Fund |
| RSP Global Communications Fund |
will merge into |
RSP Global Equity Fund |
| U.S. Core Portfolio |
will merge into |
Canadian Core Portfolio |
| U.S. Growth Fund |
will merge into |
Navellier U.S. All Cap Fund |
| U.S. Smaller Company Growth Fund |
will merge into |
Global Small Cap Fund |
| U.S. Value Class |
will merge into |
Global Equity Class |
Details regarding these mergers, including the tax consequences
to mutual fund investors, will be set out in an information
circular to be sent to mutual fund investors in July.
Subject to mutual fund investor approval, Clarington is
proposing to change the investment objective of Clarington Canadian
Core Portfolio so that it can invest in other Clarington mutual
funds that invest primarily in equity securities. This change will
be made immediately before the mergers and the name of the Fund
will be changed to Clarington Core Portfolio. Until the foreign
property rule is repealed, units of the Fund will continue not to
be foreign property for the purposes of that rule.
The overall management expense ratio for investors in these and
all of the terminating funds will be maintained or possibly lowered
following the mergers. However, the U.S. Growth Fund and Global
Value Class are merging into funds with higher management fees,
which means that the management fee component will increase by 0.10
percentage points, although the overall management expense ratio
will not change.
If the mergers are approved by mutual fund investors and receive
regulatory approval, they will occur on August 26, 2005. Effective
the close of business June 10, 2005, the terminating funds will be
closed to new purchases, except for purchases under existing
systematic plans and redirected distributions. Existing systematic
plans on the terminating funds will carry over to the continuing
funds following the mergers.
About ClaringtonFunds Inc.
Clarington, a wholly owned subsidiary of Clarington Corporation,
is an independent Canadian mutual fund company with more than $4
billion in assets under management. The company offers a wide
variety of mutual funds managed by leading Canadian and
international portfolio managers. Based in Toronto, Clarington
maintains regional offices in major Canadian centres.