National Bank Investments Inc. (NBI) announced today changes to select NBI Funds. These changes include fund mergers, the method of charging operating expenses to select NBI Funds to increase fee predictability and transparency as well as other changes. Certain changes, as outlined below, are subject to regulatory and/or securityholder approval. Where applicable, securityholder approval will be sought at virtual special meetings (individually, a “Meeting” and collectively, the “Meetings”) of securityholders of each applicable NBI Fund, to be held concurrently on or about May 17, 2021.
The proposed changes aim to simplify NBI’s product lineup, while also delivering benefits for both investors and advisors offering NBI Funds.
“NBI is committed to maintaining a client-centric approach while also providing investors with our best solutions across a variety of different portfolio managers,” said Annamaria Testani, Senior Vice-President, National Sales at National Bank Investments. "The proposed fund mergers will allow advisors to better respond to the needs of their clientele by selecting solutions from a more streamlined product offering."
"These suggested changes will enhance NBI's product offering by providing our advisors with an optimized fund lineup," explained Éric-Olivier Savoie, President and Chief Executive Officer at National Bank Investments. "Offering a simplified list of innovative solutions will reinforce our position as the leading open architecture organization in the industry."
Proposed fund mergers
Subject to obtaining all necessary approvals, NBI proposes to merge
each NBI Fund (individually, a “Terminating Fund” and collectively,
the “Terminating Funds”) into the corresponding NBI Fund
(individually, a “Continuing Fund” and collectively, the “Continuing
Funds”) as indicated in the tables below. Securityholders of record on
or about April 1, 2021 will receive Meeting materials in mid-April. If
approved, the mergers will be effective on the dates indicated below.
Certain mergers, as noted in the tables below, do not require
securityholder or regulatory approval. Instead, these investors will
be provided 60 days’ prior written notice before the mergers are
implemented (the “Pre-Approved Mergers”). The Pre-Approved Mergers
will be completed on a tax deferred basis.