AGF seeks Acuity fund mergers

AGF Investments has called special investor meetings to seek approval for mergers between the core AGF funds and overlapping Acuity funds.

AGF sealed the Acuity purchase in February, and there was some speculation that the SRI-focused Acuity might disappear within the larger firm. So far, that does not seem to be the case.

“The majority of Acuity and AGF assets are unaffected by the mergers and the Acuity funds will continue to be managed by Acuity managers,” said Gordon Forrester, AGF executive vice-president, marketing and product and head of retail.

If approved, the following fund mergers would take place:

• AGF Canadian All Cap Equity Fund into Acuity All Cap 30 Canadian Equity Fund
• AGF Pure Canadian Balanced Fund into Acuity Conservative Asset Allocation Fund
• Acuity Canadian Equity Fund into AGF Canadian Stock Fund
• Acuity Global Dividend Fund into AGF Global Dividend Fund
• Acuity Global High Income Fund into AGF Global Dividend Fund
• Acuity Money Market Fund into AGF Canadian Money Market Fund
• (Acuity) Alpha Balanced Portfolio into AGF Elements Balanced Portfolio
• (Acuity) Alpha Income Portfolio into AGF Elements Yield Portfolio
• (Acuity) Alpha Global Portfolio into AGF Elements Global Portfolio
• (Acuity) Alpha Growth Portfolio into AGF Elements Growth Portfolio
• Acuity Dividend Fund into Acuity Growth & Income Fund

AGF is also seeking investor approval for the following mergers of three Acuity closed-end funds and a pooled fund into Acuity mutual funds:

• Acuity Focused Total Return Trust into Acuity Growth & Income Fund
• Acuity Growth & Income Trust into Acuity Growth & Income Fund
• Acuity Small Cap Corporation into Acuity Canadian Small Cap Fund
• Acuity Pooled Dividend Fund into Acuity Pooled Growth & Income Fund

If approved by both investors and regulators, as applicable, the closed-end fund mergers will take effect on or about July 8, 2011, and the trust fund and pooled fund mergers will take effect on or about August 26, 2011. The final TSX trading date for the closed-end funds is expected to be June 30, 2011.

Investors will also be asked to approve the amalgamation of three corporate class structures, including:

Investors will also be asked to vote on issues dealing with corporate class funds, including:

• the amalgamation of Acuity Corporate Class Ltd. and AGF All World Tax Advantage Group Limited into a single mutual fund corporation also to be known as AGF All World Tax Advantage Group Limited (“Amalco”)
• the merger of Acuity All Cap 30 Canadian Equity Class with AGF Canadian Growth Equity Class, to continue as “AGF Canadian Growth Equity Class” in Amalco
• the merger of Acuity Natural Resource Class with AGF Global Resources Class, to continue as “AGF Global Resources Class” in Amalco

If approved by both investors and regulators, the proposed amalgamation and corporate class fund mergers will take effect on or about October 1, 2011.

The meetings will be held on May 18, 2011.

Staff

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