Briefly:

(June 11, 2004) Jovian Capital Corporation has announced it is acquiring Leon Frazer & Associates Inc., an investment counsellor with approximately $735 million in assets under management. The company will be held through Jovian’s wholly-owned subsidiary Jovian Asset Management Inc., with the deal set to close on or about July 15, 2004.

“With this acquisition, we will strengthen our asset management platform, and become a significant force in the personal wealth management business,” says Mark Arthur, president and CEO of Jovian Asset Management. “Jovian will continue to expand its business and operations, both through acquisitions and organic growth. We see this acquisition setting the stage for rapid growth in our asset management business, which is an area that we will continue to focus on over the next 12 months.”

Jovian will buy AMIC Canada Limited’s 28% stake in Leon Frazer and Asset Management Investment Company PLC’s 49% stake. Initial cash consideration for the acquisition will be $2,292,912.20, with the final price to be based on Leon Frazer earnings as of March 31, 2005.

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Business owners reminded of tax deadline

(June 11, 2004) The federal government is reminding business operators that the deadline for filing their income tax return is fast approaching, with midnight on June 15 as the cut off. Those owing a balance on their taxes should have already paid it by April 30, 2004.

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Franklin Templeton appoints new executive

(June 11, 2004) Franklin Templeton has added an insurance industry specialist to its executive team. Duane Green has been appointed vice-president of strategic alliances, at the Toronto-based fund company.

Green will be responsible for servicing and expanding Franklin Templeton’s third-party alliance programs, focusing on the wealth management strategies of Canadian insurance companies.

Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, Green was vice-president of business development at Performa Financial Group, the distribution arm of Standard Life.

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RBC issues warning over e-mail scam

(June 10, 2004) Still recovering from a massive computer glitch, RBC is now dealing with a widespread e-mail scam, in which customers are asked to provide customer information to a phony Web site that looks similar to the bank’s own site.

The e-mail, sent to thousands of RBC customers on Wednesday, appears legitimate, stating that “due to the increased fraudulent activity within our site we are undertaking a review of our member accounts.” Clients are asked to verify their account number and personal information numbers and are told that if they don’t follow the instructions, access to their accounts will be blocked.

RBC is telling clients to ignore the e-mail. “We are reminding people that they should never give out their personal identification numbers and that it is a scam,” said RBC spokesperson Judi Levita. “We always tell our customers never to share online banking passwords or any personal identification numbers with anyone.”

Similar scams have targeted other financial institutions over the past couple of years.

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Pension plans bleeding red ink

(June 9, 2004) Nearly 60% of Canada’s defined benefit pension plans are currently running deficits and $160 billion is needed to cover the shortfall, according to a study by Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (CGA-Canada).

“The Canadian pension landscape is changing,” said Anthony Ariganello, president and CEO of CGA-Canada. “Where previously, many large and well-established employers provided generous pension plans and employees fully expected to receive their benefits as a matter of course, we are now faced with a fluid and shifting environment.”

The study included 847 plans and warns of dire consequences faced by plan sponsors, participants and pensioners.

The report estimates that Canadian companies would need to make special payments of $15 billion a year for five years to make up for the current deficits, adding that it is unrealistic to expect stock market returns to completely cover the shortfall, with long-term best estimates of future market returns for a balanced pension fund running at about 6.5%.

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Manulife to set up tech support centre in Halifax

(June 9, 2004) Manulife Financial today announced plans to set up an information technology support centre in Halifax. Manulife has signed a five-year $120 million agreement with CGI Group to run the new centre.

As part of the agreement, 300 Halifax-based technology professionals will join CGI in September 2004.

“We are committed to a substantial presence in Halifax following our recent acquisition of Maritime Life and this is a major step toward that goal,” said Manulife’s Bruce Gordon.

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Otar unveils retirement calculator

(June 8, 2004) Otar & Associates has rolled out a new retirement calculator, which the firm says takes the guesswork out of retirement planning, using historical market data gathered since 1900, rather than market projections.

The spreadsheet-based application does not require an assumed average portfolio growth rate, average inflation or any Monte Carlo simulation. The calculator can adopt various asset allocation models as well.

Respected financial planner Jim Otar developed the calculator, which is available at www.retirementoptimizer.com/.

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Canadian bond market to close early on Friday

(June 8, 2004) With U.S. markets shutting down on Friday to mark the funeral of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, the IDA has decided to close the Canadian bond market early.

Canadian fixed income markets will close at 1 p.m. eastern time on June 11, the IDA says. The Toronto Stock Exchange will operate on a normal schedule.

U.S. stock markets have historically closed for all presidential funerals.

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U.S. markets to close on Friday

(June 7, 2004) The New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Stock Market will be closed on Friday to mark the funeral of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan.

June 11 has been declared a national day of mourning for Reagan, who died on the weekend at age 93.

“President Reagan was a great champion of free people and free markets,” says New York Stock Exchange president John Thain. “He believed strongly in the ability of capitalism to foster opportunity and prosperity.”

U.S. markets have traditionally closed for presidential funerals. The New York Stock Exchange observed two minutes of silence this morning to honour Reagan, who was the only president to visit the exchange while in office.

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Mackenzie appoints new sub-advisor for emerging markets fund

(June 7, 2004) Mackenzie Financial has announced the appointment of JP Morgan Fleming Asset Management as sub-advisor to the Mackenzie Universal World Emerging Growth Capital Class Fund, effective July 30.

JP Morgan Fleming, which currently co-manages three other international funds for Mackenzie, replaces Henderson Global Investors as sub-advisor to the $43 million emerging markets fund.

“Market growth in China and India, in particular, has rejuvenated interest in emerging markets, and we’re optimistic about the prospects of our fund under JP Morgan Fleming’s stewardship,” says Mackenzie Financial president David Feather.

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ING announces portfolio changes

(June 7, 2004) ING Investment Management today announced a change in the underlying fund holdings of its five Ensemble Portfolios.

The fund of funds portfolios are managed by ING, AIM Trimark and Fidelity. ING is replacing the AIM Trimark Enterprise Small Cap Fund with the ING Canadian Small Cap Equity Fund, due to changes being implemented by AIM Trimark.

ING’s John Lockbaum says the change should be seamless for investors since the investment objectives as well as the target weightings will remain the same.

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(06/07/04)