Mr. Kurt MacAlpine reports

CI FINANCIAL REPORTS FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2023

CI Financial Corp. has released financial results for the quarter and year ended Dec. 31, 2023.

"Strong fourth quarter results capped a successful year for CI, with year-over-year gains in adjusted earnings per share, free cash flow and total assets," said Kurt MacAlpine, chief executive officer of CI. "There were numerous achievements across our business segments, demonstrating continued progress in executing on CI's strategic priorities.

"In asset management, we had $340-million in Canadian retail net sales for 2023, a notable accomplishment when the Canadian fund industry had its worst year on record for mutual fund net redemptions. We were the most awarded investment manager in Canada by both Lipper and FundGrade, reflecting the strength of our investment performance and the integrated global investment platform we have built. CI continued to be active in product development, enhancing its existing lineup as well as launching innovative new solutions. These included two best-in-class private markets solutions that bring the world's leading alternatives mangers to Canadian retail investors.

"A key initiative in Canadian wealth management during the year was the rapid scaling of our custody business with the conversion of Aligned Capital assets to the CI Investment Services platform," Mr. MacAlpine said. "Through a combination of external and internal growth, our custody business has increased to $26-billion in assets from just over $1-billion in 2018. This has helped to transform the economics of the Canadian wealth management segment, which generated $72.2-million in adjusted EBITDA for 2023, a 33-per-cent increase over 2022 and up from effectively zero in 2019. We also continued to build on CI Private Wealth's position as a leading destination for ultrahigh-net-worth Canadians with the acquisition of Coriel Capital of Montreal.

"In U.S. wealth management, we continue to integrate the business and realize synergies while greatly expanding the services available to clients. Though the most visible accomplishment was the adoption a new unified brand in Corient, there were many important developments behind the scenes in 2023, including the adoption of a centralized reporting structure and a common technology platform. New services during the year included an alternative investments offering, the launch of Corient Trust company, a wealth transfer practice and a personal CFO [chief financial officer] service providing bill payment, accounting and related services. Our integration initiatives allowed us to increase the adjusted EBITDA margin by 440 basis points in 2023.

"We also achieved the full separation of the U.S. business from our Canadian operations, supported by the sale of a minority stake to leading institutional investors and now with the establishment of an independent credit rating for Corient," Mr. MacAlpine said. "The Kroll debt rating of A-minus (stable) reflects the strong cash flow profile and robust EBITDA growth of the Corient business.

"We continue to use our cash flow to repurchase shares due to the disconnect between our share price and the underlying value of the company. Last year, we substantially completed our annual normal course issuer bid and a $100-million substantial issuer bid, and today we are announcing a new substantial issuer bid, under which we will repurchase up to $85-million in shares.

"Over the past four years, CI has transitioned from a highly concentrated business, where most of our assets and virtually all our earnings came from Canadian asset management, to a much more diversified business," Mr. MacAlpine said. "Today, the majority of our assets are in wealth management, our business is well balanced between Canada and the U.S., and wealth management is a very large and rapidly growing contributor to our earnings.

"Given the strategic progress across our business lines and the strength of our capital position, CI is incredibly well positioned for another successful year in 2024."

Financial highlights

Fourth quarter net loss attributable to shareholders was $63.5-million, compared with a net loss of $12.4-million in the third quarter of 2023. Excluding non-operating items, adjusted net income attributable to shareholders was $128.2-million in the fourth quarter, down 3.5 per cent from the third quarter.

Fourth quarter total net revenues increased 16.1 per cent to $715.6-million in the quarter from $616.5-million in the third quarter of 2023. Excluding non-operating items, adjusted total net revenues declined slightly to $666.7-million from $669.6-million as higher revenues from the Canada wealth management segment were offset by lower asset management segment revenues.

Fourth quarter total expenses increased 26.5 per cent to $753.7-million in the quarter from $595.9-million in the third quarter of 2023. Excluding non-operating items, adjusted total expenses were up slightly to $448.7-million from $445.8-million as a result of higher costs related to new leased office space, interest expense, and higher adviser and dealer fees due to higher Canada wealth management revenues.

Capital allocation

In December, 2023, CI completed its substantial issuer bid, under which it purchased for cancellation 6,544,502 common shares at a purchase price of $15.28 per share for an aggregate price of approximately $100-million.

CI paid $28.6-million in dividends at a rate of 18 cents per share. The annual dividend rate of 72 cents per share represented a yield of 4.5 per cent on CI's closing share price of $15.83 on Feb. 22, 2024. The board of directors of CI declared a quarterly dividend of 20 cents per share, payable on July 15, 2024, to shareholders of record as of June 28, 2024. As announced in August, 2023, the board declared a two-cent increase to the quarterly dividend to 20 cents per share, which was paid on Jan. 15, 2024, to shareholders of record as of Dec. 29, 2023.

Substantial issuer bid

The board has approved the commencement of a substantial issuer bid, pursuant to which CI will offer to purchase up to 4,857,142 of its outstanding common shares from holders for cash at a purchase price of $17.50 per share.

The offer will not be conditional upon any minimum number of shares being tendered but will be subject to other conditions, and CI will reserve the right, subject to applicable laws, to withdraw or amend the offer, if, at any time prior to the payment for deposited shares, certain events occur as will be described in the formal offer to purchase and issuer bid circular and other related documents.

Details of the offer, including instructions for tendering shares to the offer and the factors considered by the board in making its decision to approve the offer, will be included in the offer documents. The offer is expected to commence and the offer documents are expected to be mailed to shareholders and filed on SEDAR+ on or about Feb. 26, 2024. Shareholders should carefully read the offer documents prior to making a decision with respect to the offer.

CI has engaged National Bank Financial Inc. (NBF) to act as dealer manager and financial adviser in connection with the offer. CI has also engaged Computershare Investor Services Inc. to act as depositary for the offer.

None of CI, its board, NBF or the depositary makes any recommendation to any shareholder as to whether to deposit or refrain from depositing shares under the offer. Shareholders are urged to evaluate carefully all information in the offer, consult their own financial, legal, investment and tax advisers, and make their own decisions as to whether to deposit shares under the offer, and, if so, how many shares to deposit. The disclosure in this press release regarding the offer is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell shares. The solicitation and the offer to buy shares will only be made pursuant to the offer documents.

Fourth quarter business highlights:

• CI completed the acquisitions of Coriel Capital Inc., a Montreal-based wealth management firm serving ultrahigh-net-worth Canadians, and Windsor Wealth Management Inc., a registered investment adviser based in Indianapolis.
• CI announced that Marc-Andre Lewis, chief investment officer of CI Global Asset Management (CI GAM), will assume the position of co-head of CI GAM in addition to his responsibilities as CIO, effective Jan. 1, 2024. The appointment follows the decision by Darie Urbanky, CI president and chief operating officer and head of CI GAM, to retire on or before Dec. 31, 2024.
• CI GAM investment funds received 19 LSEG Lipper Fund Awards for Canada for 2023, more than any other fund company. The awards recognize mutual funds and ETFs (exchange-traded funds) that have provided consistently strong risk-adjusted performance, relative to peers.
• As part of CI's strategic priority of modernizing asset management, CI GAM undertook a series of initiatives to streamline and enhance its product lineup, including improvements to selected funds and a proposal to merge 19 mutual funds and ETFs into other mandates. New products launched by CI GAM during the quarter included the first-home savings account.

Following quarter-end:

• CI GAM led the industry in receiving 35 FundGrade A+ awards for 2023. These awards are presented annually by Fundata Canada Inc. to acknowledge Canadian investment funds that have demonstrated consistent, outstanding risk-adjusted performance.
• CI GAM continued to be active in product development, launching products that included mutual fund versions of its popular CI Wisdomtree Quality, dividend growth ETFs, and two ETFs providing targeted exposure to U.S. momentum and value stocks. CI GAM also introduced a commodity-focused alternative fund designed to provide returns that are uncorrelated to traditional asset classes, extending the firm's broad selection of alternative investment funds.

Analyst conference call

CI will hold a conference call with analysts today at 10 a.m. EST, led by Mr. MacAlpine and chief financial officer Amit Muni. A live webcast of the call and slide presentation can be accessed through the investor relations section of CI's website.

Alternatively, investors may listen to the discussion through the following numbers (access code: 019307).

Canada toll-free number:  1-833-950-0062

United States toll-free number:  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.

CI operates in three segments:

• Asset management, which includes CI Global Asset Management, which operates in Canada, and GSFM Funds Management, which operates in Australia;
• Canadian wealth management, which includes the operations of CI Assante Wealth Management, Aligned Capital Partners, CI Private Wealth (Canada), Northwood Family Office, Coriel Capital, CI Direct Investing and CI Investment Services;
• U.S. wealth management, which includes Corient Private Wealth, an integrated wealth management firm providing comprehensive solutions to ultrahigh-net-worth and high-net-worth clients across the United States.

CI is headquartered in Toronto and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

We seek Safe Harbor.