TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - July 8, 2016) - BMO Investments Inc. (BMOII) today announced changes to the BMO Mutual Funds lineup. These changes include a proposal to merge mutual funds to streamline the product suite and to implement certain fee reductions.
Proposed Fund Mergers
Subject to obtaining all necessary securityholder and regulatory approvals, BMOII proposes that each Terminating Fund listed in the table below be merged into the corresponding Continuing Fund also listed below. If approved, the mergers will be effective on or about the dates set out below:
| Terminating Fund | Continuing Fund | Effective Date | ||
| BMO Canadian Low Volatility ETF Class | BMO Global Low Volatility ETF Class | September 23, 2016 | ||
| BMO High Yield Bond Fund | BMO U.S. High Yield Bond Fund | October 14, 2016 | ||
| BMO Enhanced Equity Income Fund | BMO Dividend Fund | September 23, 2016 | ||
| BMO Canadian Diversified Monthly Income Fund | BMO Diversified Income Portfolio | October 14, 2016 | ||
| BMO Global Monthly Income Fund | BMO Global Diversified Fund | September 23, 2016 |
Approval from securityholders of the Terminating Funds and BMO Global Low Volatility ETF Class will be sought at special meetings to be held on or about September 16, 2016 . In advance of the meetings, full details of the proposed mergers will be set out in a notice of meetings and management information circular that will be sent in late August 2016 to securityholders of record as at August 5, 2016 . The notice of meetings and management information circular will also be available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .
If the proposed mergers are approved, securityholders of each series of each Terminating Fund will receive securities of the equivalent series of the corresponding Continuing Fund, determined on a dollar-for-dollar basis. If the proposed mergers are approved, purchases of, and switches to, securities of the Terminating Funds will be suspended after the close of business on September 20, 2016 or October 11, as applicable, depending on the effective date of each merger. The Terminating Funds will be wound up as soon as possible following the mergers. The Independent Review Committee of the funds listed above has reviewed the potential conflict of interest matters related to the proposed mergers and has provided BMOII, the manager of the funds, with a positive recommendation for each merger after determining that each merger, if implemented, achieves a fair and reasonable result for the applicable funds.
Fee Reductions
Effective July 15, 2016, BMOII will reduce the management fees on certain funds and series as outlined in the table below.
| Current Annual Management Fee | New Management Fee | |||
| BMO Global Low Volatility ETF Class Series A | 1.45 | % | 1.35 | % |
| BMO Global Low Volatility ETF Class Series F | 0.60 | % | 0.55 | % |
| BMO Global Low Volatility ETF Class Advisor Series | 1.45 | % | 1.35 | % |
| BMO Global Low Volatility ETF Class Series T6 | 1.45 | % | 1.35 | % |
| BMO Dividend Fund Series D | 0.95 | % | 0.90 | % |
| BMO U.S. High Yield Bond Fund Series A | 1.75 | % | 1.60 | % |
| BMO U.S. High Yield Bond Fund Series F | 0.55 | % | 0.45 | % |
| BMO U.S. High Yield Bond Fund Advisor Series | 1.75 | % | 1.60 | % |
In addition, effective July 15, 2016, BMOII will reduce the Administration Fee on BMO U.S. High Yield Bond Fund and BMO Diversified Income Portfolio from 0.28 per cent to 0.25 per cent and 0.25 per cent to 0.20 per cent, respectively.
For more information on BMO Mutual Funds, please visit www.bmo.com/gam/ca .
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BMO Mutual Funds are offered by BMO Investments Inc., a financial services firm and separate legal entity from Bank of Montreal.
About BMO Financial Group
Established in 1817, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified financial services provider based in North America. With total assets of $681 billion as of April 30, 2016, and over 45,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.
