Manulife launches closed-end fund

Manulife Investments has announced that a final prospectus for Manulife U.S. Regional Bank Trust has been filed and receipted by the securities regulatory authorities of all the Canadian provinces and territories for an initial public offering of Class A Units and Class U Units at a price of $10.00 per Class A Unit and US$10.00 per Class U Unit.

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The maximum amount of the offering is $200 million or 20 million Units. The offering is expected to close on or about July 23, 2014. The TSX has conditionally approved the listing of the Class A Units under the symbol MBK.UN, subject to the fulfillment of TSX requirements. The Class U Units will not be listed on an exchange.

The fund’s objectives are to:

• maximize total return through capital appreciation and distributions; and
• provide unitholders monthly distributions.

The fund invests in an actively managed portfolio comprised primarily of securities of U.S. regional banks and lending companies, including commercial banks and industrial banks, savings and loan associations, and bank and financial holding companies.

Manulife Asset Management Limited will act as trustee, manager and investment manager of the fund. The portfolio will be actively managed by Manulife Asset Management (US) LLC.

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The initial NAV per unit for the Class A and Class U units will be $9.70 and US$9.70, respectively.

The fund’s initial target distribution amount is expected to be $0.0416 per Class A Unit per month (or $0.50 per annum), and US$0.0416 per Class U Unit per month (or US$0.50 per annum), representing an initial yield on the original Unit issue price of 5.00% per annum.

The offering is being conducted by a syndicate of agents co-led by RBC Capital Markets and CIBC World Markets Inc., that also includes Scotia Capital Inc., TD Securities Inc., BMO Capital Markets, National Bank Financial Inc., GMP Securities L.P., Manulife Securities Incorporated, Raymond James Ltd., Canaccord Genuity Corp., Desjardins Securities Inc., Dundee Securities Limited and Mackie Research Capital Corporation.

The offering is only made by a prospectus dated June 25, 2014.

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