Mr. Marc-Andre Lewis reports

CI GLOBAL ASSET MANAGEMENT BRINGS LEADING ALTERNATIVE ASSET MANAGERS TO CANADIAN INVESTORS THROUGH TWO PRIVATE MARKETS SOLUTIONS

CI Financial Corp.'s CI Global Asset Management (CI GAM) has released two solutions that provide Canadian investors with access to unique investment opportunities in global private markets. The solutions, a growth mandate and an income mandate, are now available to accredited investors through an offering memorandum.

By using an open-architecture fund-of-funds structure, the CI GAM solutions provide convenient one-stop exposure to a diverse set of leading private markets investment strategies.

"Private markets investing offers a myriad of benefits, but this area is broad and complex and typically has been accessible only to the largest institutional investors," said Marc-Andre Lewis, executive vice-president and chief investment officer of CI GAM.

"CI GAM's scale and experience enable us to distill the complexity of private markets into a single investment that's well diversified across this important group of asset classes. Furthermore, we're offering Canadian investors the expertise of global best-in-class alternative investment managers."

Investment managers currently represented in CI GAM's private markets solutions include Adams Street Partners, Apollo Global Management, Avenue Capital Group, CBRE Investment Management, Demopolis Equity Partners, HarbourVest Partners and Whitehorse Liquidity Partners.

Benefits of private markets investments -- which are those made in entities that are not publicly listed or traded -- include enhanced portfolio diversification, reduced correlation and lower realized volatility compared with public markets, and the potential for improved risk-adjusted returns.

"Sophisticated institutional investors such as large public pension plans recognize the opportunities in private markets and may have 40 per cent or more of their portfolios allocated to these investments," said Mr. Lewis.

"Meanwhile, other investors face multiple barriers to private markets investing, including high investment minimums, lack of access, and the difficulties of navigating a large universe of managers and funds. Our one-ticket private markets solutions solve for these issues, as CI GAM is responsible for manager due diligence and selection, making allocations to different managers and strategies, constructing efficient, diversified portfolios, and ongoing risk and liquidity management."

The solutions follow an open-architecture approach, meaning that CI GAM has the ability to source leading managers within each asset class, and change allocations and add investment managers as needed to effectively manage the portfolios.

"Another benefit for investors is that we are already operating at scale, with well-established relationships with our alternative investment managers," said Mr. Lewis.

The private markets growth solution was launched in February, 2023, when it was opened to investments by other CI GAM funds. That mandate now has $420-million in assets under management (at July 31, 2023). In addition to the two multimanager solutions, CI GAM offers three other private markets solutions, with the first being launched in 2016.

The new CI GAM private markets income solution focuses on delivering yield and invests primarily in private credit, private real estate and private infrastructure, as well as private equity with the characteristics of preferred shares. The private markets growth solution invests primarily in private equity, venture capital, private real estate and private infrastructure.

Lead portfolio managers of the mandates are Mr. Lewis and Geof Marshall, senior vice-president, portfolio manager and lead -- private markets. Mr. Lewis has over 20 years of investment experience, including deep experience in asset allocation and alternative investments. Prior to joining CI GAM, his roles included head of portfolio construction at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, and senior vice-president and deputy chief risk officer at Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, where he led a team that analyzed and monitored the risks of both its public and private investments and was a member of the asset allocation committee.

Mr. Marshall leads the high-yield bond team at CI GAM and is a member of its asset allocation committee. He has 26 years of investment experience that has included managing corporate bonds, leveraged loans and private credit.

The CI GAM team is also supported by resources of its U.S. affiliate, which are providing additional sourcing and due diligence expertise.

These private markets solutions are the latest advancement in CI GAM's plans to build an industry-leading alternative investments platform to provide advisers and investors with additional options to diversify their portfolios and enhance risk-adjusted returns. CI GAM now offers five private markets solutions, and manages a diverse selection of liquid alternatives mandates with approximately $3.7-billion in total assets (as at July 31, 2023).

Certain investment solutions offered by CI GAM, including the new multimanager, multiasset class solutions, are made in reliance on exemptions from the prospectus requirement in Canada, including where investments are made by accredited investors who meet minimum investment thresholds and other qualifying criteria, through registered dealers.

About CI Global Asset Management

CI Global Asset Management is one of Canada's largest investment management companies. It offers a wide range of investment products and services. CI Global Asset Management is a subsidiary of CI Financial, an integrated global asset and wealth management company with approximately $430.3-billion in assets as of July 31, 2022.