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(December 12, 2007) An Ontario court has cleared the way for investors who hold Portus notes in a registered account to sell the notes to a third party without triggering a taxable event.

The motion to allow investors to sell their claim on Portus’s assets was submitted by lawyers for KPMG, the receiver in the Portus bankruptcy proceedings. All sales must be effected by Concentra Trust, the successor to the trust that originally held the notes for registered plan investors.

The motion was unopposed and was approved by Justice Colin Campbell.

KPMG will file its next receiver’s report on the remaining Portus notes in January.

KPMG will be back in court on December 20, 2007, seeking approval for a plan to make final distributions to investors in Portus’s Market Neutral Preservation Fund. Investors could see the cash before Christmas.

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Global corporate earnings to weaken: survey

(December 12, 2007) A new survey released on Wednesday says investment professionals around the world think corporate earnings in the U.S., Europe and Japan will weaken, while stock market volatility will increase.

AXA Rosenberg polled 196 professionals in New York, London, Tokyo and Melbourne. Survey participants in the U.S., England and Japan said they expect corporate earnings in their own markets to decline over the next 12 months, while respondents based in Australia think earnings in their own market will increase.

Stephane Prunet, AXA Rosenberg’s global CEO, says if these expectations come true, investors will need to look at stocks with sound fundamentals and portfolio risk control in order to be successful. “We also expect that growing interest in innovative equity products that help navigate this volatility will continue well beyond 2008,” he says.

Every region said Asia, excluding Japan, will have the strongest corporate earnings growth, while the U.K., Australia and Japan all think the States will have the weakest growth.

“We were struck by the degree of similarity in opinions about which economies, markets and currencies will be the strongest and weakest across the globe,” says Prunet. “Not 100% agreement, but enough to suggest that we really do live in a globally interconnected economy.”

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TD Asset Management launches three pooled funds

(December 12, 2007) TD Asset Management is set to launch three new pooled fund trusts. The company revealed Wednesday that it created these funds in order to facilitate access to markets that are in high demand.

The new funds will include the TD Emerald 130/30 Fundamental Canadian Equity Pooled Fund Trust. The company says that this fund “builds on [its] success managing fundamental long only equity and long/short equity market-neutral strategies.”

The other two funds are the TD Emerald Enhanced International Equity Pooled Fund Trust and the TD Emerald Global Dividend Pooled Fund Trust.

The former fund uses the bank’s quantitative analytical techniques to build a portfolio of equities from Europe, Australasia and the Far East. The Global Dividend Pooled Fund Trust is expected to give investors growth and income through a “disciplined and research-driven approach by investing primarily in dividend-paying equity securities and other income-producing instruments of issuers from around the world,” says the company in a release.

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Mavrix Fund Management appoints new chairman

(December 12, 2007) On Wednesday, Mavrix Fund Management appointed Pierre Saint-Laurent the company’s new chairman.

The president of Asset Council Inc., Saint-Laurent has been on Mavrix’s board of directors as an independent director since March 14, 2006.

The company also appointed Martine Guimond as an independent director. Guimond is a partner in the Montreal-based law firm Gowling, Lafleur, Henderson and is a director of Branchez-Vous Inc. She is also a member of the board of the Quebec Investment Funds Council.

(12/12/07)