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(May 3, 2007) The Alberta Securities Commission is warning the public about an investment scheme where fake companies use similar names of legitimate oil and gas companies and their success to draw investors.

The ASC says investors have been approached by representatives for Al-Tar Energy Corp. and Alberta Energy Corp. The ASC says the companies have confused investors into associating them with Alter NRG, a current reporting issuer in Alberta, and Alberta Energy Company Ltd., or AEC, which merged with PanCanadian Energy in 2002 to form EnCana.

While supposedly separate companies, both offer virtually the same content and contact information on their websites, the ASC says.

In addition to the similar names, the ASC says representatives attempting to raise funds for these companies have made false claims about connections to current Alberta reporting issuers.

For example, an Alberta investor reported that an Al-Tar representative tried to raise funds by indicating that Al-Tar has a royalty stake in a well-known Alberta issuer’s pipeline. When contacted, the issuer’s lawyers advised that Al-Tar has no such interest.

On the Alberta Energy Corp. website, the company promotes a connection to the Royal Utilities Fund, which could be mistaken for the legitimate Royal Utilities Income Fund. It also listed one of the directors as being a former director of Embridge, rather than Enbridge Inc.

“This investment scheme misleads the investor into thinking the entity has an affiliation with a successful bona fide company,” says ASC executive director Dave Linder. “Investors need to protect themselves by scrutinizing the sales talk and making proper inquiries before they invest.”

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CIBC gets new sub-advisor for Asian Funds

(May 3, 2007) CIBC Asset Management has tapped Hamon Investment Management to serve as a portfolio sub-advisor for the Talvest China Plus Fund and the Talvest Asian Fund.

The Hong Kong-based Hamon is an independent asset management firm established in 1989 that specializes in Asian investment. It will replace CIBC Global Asset Management (Asia) Limited as the portfolio sub-advisor of the funds.

CIBC says that Hamon uses a “bottom up” approach and actively manages funds with a core style: growth or value depending on the economic and liquidity cycle. It focuses on opportunities in different industries across the Asian countries, and its strategy is performance-driven rather than market cap-driven.

CIBC asserts that Hamon’s management style will not change the funds’ investment objectives.

“We are pleased to have Hamon join CIBC Asset Management’s roster of world-class investment managers, given their proven success and expertise in the Asian investment arena,” says Steve Geist, president of CIBC Asset Management. “They bring a strong track record to these funds and local knowledge of this dynamic and increasingly important global market.”

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Modest growth in median income: StatsCan

(May 3, 2007) Statistics Canada released its Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics for 2005 on Thursday. One of the key measures in the survey is the median after-tax income of Canadians, which the survey reports rose slightly for most families in 2005, and remained stable for singles and seniors.

The median after-tax income for Canadian families with two or more people rose 1.6% from 2004 to $56,000, after adjusting for inflation, StatsCan says. An increase of 1.3% in after-tax income was observed in 2004.

Singles and seniors saw virtually no change to their after-tax income. The median after-tax income of seniors remained virtually unchanged at $40,400 in 2005. StatsCan notes this still represents a 15% increase in real terms relative to 1996.

Median after-tax income of singles remained at $21,400 in 2005. About 14% of the population lived as unattached individuals in 2005, up from 11% two decades earlier. In 2005, the median market income, which is basically the sum of earnings from employment, private retirement savings and investments, of two-parent families with children was $72,800. StatsCan said this number remained virtually unchanged between 2004 and 2005.

Provincially, Alberta families reported the highest median of $64,700 compared to $61,000 for Ontario families. Quebec families saw a 3.5% increase of their after-tax income to $50,400 in 2005. After-tax income was virtually unchanged in all other provinces. Families in Newfoundland and Labrador had the lowest after-tax income of $43,100.

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(05/03/07)