Mr. Kurt MacAlpine reports

CI FINANCIAL REPORTS FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2023

CI Financial Corp. has released its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2023.

CI also announced this morning that it has agreed to sell a 20-per-cent minority stake in its United States wealth management business (CI U.S.) to a group of prominent institutional investors.

"The CI U.S. transaction is a significant step-in CI's ongoing strategic transformation and builds on the important progress we have made for the year to date," said Kurt MacAlpine, chief executive officer of CI. "Our U.S. wealth management business now manages more than $198-billion in assets with the addition this month of Avalon Advisors, a high-quality Houston-based firm focused on the ultrahigh-net-worth segment and one of the largest registered investment advisers in Texas with $11.1-billion under management.

"We have numerous projects under way to both realize synergies from the integration of the U.S. business and to drive its continued strong growth and development," Mr. MacAlpine said. "The impact is clear -- our adjusted U.S. EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] increased 15 per cent quarter over quarter.

"In Canadian wealth management, our initiative to expand CI Investment Services into the foundation of an integrated platform serving the entire business is proceeding well and we expect to complete the transfer of client assets at Aligned Capital to the CIIS custody platform by the third quarter.

"In asset management, the Canadian retail business had its third consecutive quarter of net sales with inflows of $800-million in the first quarter," Mr. MacAlpine said. "We continued to modernize the business with an impressive series of product launches across our mutual fund and ETF [exchange-traded fund] lineups, including a unique fund-of-funds private markets solution designed to provide simple one-ticket access to this increasingly important asset class."

Financial highlights

The first quarter net income of $30.2-million compared with a net loss of $8.3-million in the fourth quarter of 2022. The improvement reflected stronger revenues, lower transaction, integration, restructuring and settlement costs, and a more normalized tax rate partially offset by higher interest expenses. Excluding non-operating items, adjusted net income of $136.8-million in the quarter was little changed from the fourth quarter.

First quarter total net revenues increased 2.8 per cent to $637.8-million in the quarter from $620.3-million in the fourth quarter of 2022. Excluding non-operating items, adjusted total net revenues grew 4.1 per cent to $640-million, driven by growth in its Canadian and U.S. wealth management segments. Asset management segment revenues were essentially unchanged as higher average AUM (assets under management) was offset by two fewer days in the quarter and effective fee rate pressure due to asset mix shift.

First quarter total expenses decreased 0.1 per cent to $583-million in the quarter from $586.7-million in the fourth quarter of 2022. Excluding non-operating items, adjusted total expenses were up 4.8 per cent to $431.5-million, reflecting seasonally higher compensation and benefits, higher adviser and dealer fees due to revenue growth, and higher interest expense.

Capital allocation

The board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of 18 cents per share, payable on Oct. 13, 2023, to shareholders of record on Sept. 29, 2023. The annual dividend rate of 72 cents per share represented a yield of 5.8 per cent on CI's closing share price of $12.50 on May 10, 2023.

First quarter business highlights:

• CI's common shares ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange as of Jan. 19, 2023, following CI's decision to voluntarily delist its shares from the exchange, as announced in November, 2022.
• In support of CI's strategic priority of modernizing asset management, CI Global Asset Management (CI GAM) launched a series of investment funds that enhance the firm's comprehensive product lineup. These included an innovative private markets fund-of-funds solution, a pair of ETFs that seek to minimize downside volatility for equity investors and a suite of new covered call funds.
• CI GAM was the recipient of 39 FundGrade A+ Awards, which are presented annually by Fundata Canada Inc. to acknowledge Canadian investment funds that have demonstrated consistent, outstanding risk-adjusted performance.

Following quarter-end:

• CI acquired Avalon Advisors of Houston, one of the leading registered investment advisor firms in Texas with $8.2-billion (U.S.) in client assets under management. Avalon serves ultrahigh-net-worth individuals and families, offering a broad range of investment management and wealth planning services characterized by a client-centred approach, service excellence and a robust investment platform that includes access to alternative mandates. The acquisition closed on May 1, 2023.
• CI reached an agreement to sell its minority stake in Boston-based Congress Wealth Management LLC to Audax Private Equity. CI, which first invested in Congress in the third quarter of 2020, agreed to sell its interest because Congress's ownership structure precluded its full integration into CI Private Wealth LLC (CIPW), CI's U.S. wealth management subsidiary.
• CIPW launched CIPW Trust LLC, a South Dakota chartered trust company, allowing CIPW advisers across the U.S. to offer a wide array of corporate trustee services through the firm. The ability to integrate trust solutions into a client's overall wealth plan is an important enhancement to CIPW's ability to provide a superior client experience.

Analysts' conference call

CI will hold a conference call with analysts today at 9 a.m. EDT, led by chief executive officer Mr. MacAlpine and chief financial officer Amit Muni. A live webcast of the call and slide presentation can be accessed on-line.

Alternatively, investors may listen to the discussion through the following numbers (access code 175331):

Canada toll-free:  1-833-950-0062

United States toll-free:  1-833-470-1428

All other locations:  1-929-526-1599

A recording of the webcast will be archived on CI's investor relations site.

About CI Financial Corp.

CI Financial is a diversified global asset and wealth management company operating primarily in Canada, the United States and Australia. Founded in 1965, CI has developed world-class portfolio management talent, extensive capabilities in all aspects of wealth planning and a comprehensive product suite.

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