BMO Investments alters mutual fund suite

BMO Investments has changed the portfolio managers and investment strategies of two funds. It’s also proposed changes to the investment objectives of these products.

BMO Asset Management will now manage both the BMO Global Absolute Return Fund and the BMO Global Small Cap Fund. Previously, the managers were Lazard Asset Management and Global Alpha Capital Management, respectively.

The investment strategies of these offerings will be changed to reflect the investment style of BMO AM, effective July 12, 2013.

In addition, Barrantagh Investment Management will no longer act as portfolio manager for any portion of the bank’s Canadian Diversified Monthly Income Fund and Global Diversified Fund, effective July 26, 2013.

Similarly, Lazard Asset Management won’t act as portfolio manager either for any portion of the Global Diversified Fund. However, there will be no changes to the fund’s objectives.

Proposed changes to other investment objectives:

Subject to obtaining all necessary unit holder and regulatory approvals, the bank is proposing to change the investment objectives of three other mutual funds. These are as follows:

Fund	Purpose of Investment Objective Change
BMO Floating Rate Income Fund	Enable the Fund to invest primarily in floating rate debt securities issued from domestic and foreign companies.
BMO U.S. Dollar Equity Index Fund	Widen the scope of how exposure is achieved to include physical securities and ETFs.
BMO Global Science & Technology Fund	Achieve a high level of total return by investing primarily in dividend-yielding common and preferred shares of companies from around the world.

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The details of these three particular proposals will be provided to investors of these funds in an information circular and proxy package that will be mailed to unit holders in late June 2013.

Pending investor approval at special unit holder meetings, the proposed changes will take effect in July 2013.

If the above amendments to the investment objectives are approved by the Funds’ unit holders, the investment strategies of each fund will be revised to reflect the new investment objectives.

Further, BMO AM will replace BMO Asset Management as portfolio manager of the bank’s U.S. Dollar Equity Index Fund, while Guardian Capital will replace BMO AM as portfolio manager of the Global Science and Technology Fund.

The names of these two funds will also be changed as a result.

What’s more, the investment strategies of the BMO Bond Fund will change to allow greater flexibility to invest in fixed-income securities issued by corporations, BBB rated fixed-income securities and non-investment grade fixed-income securities, effective May 31, 2013.