First Asset Equal Weight Pipes & Power Income Fund has filed the final prospectus for its $150 million offering scheduled to close on February 17.

The fund is designed to provide unitholders with high monthly cash distributions and low management fees together with the opportunity for capital appreciation by investing in an equally weighted diversified portfolio of Pipeline & Power Income Trusts on a passive basis.

The fund’s portfolio will be comprised of an approximate equal dollar amount of securities of each pipeline and power income trust listed on the TSX that pays a regular distribution and that has a market capitalization of at least $200 million at the time of investment.

The portfolio will be rebalanced annually to adjust for changes in market capitalizations, to add newly qualified trusts and to remove those that cease to qualify under the fund’s investment guidelines. As at January 14, there were 20 qualifying trusts.

First Asset Funds Inc., the manager of the fund, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Asset Management Inc., an integrated wealth management company with approximately $27 billion in assets under management or administration as at Dec. 31, 2004.

The subscription price of the 15 millions shares is $10 per unit, with a minimum initial investment of $1,000. The Toronto Stock Exchange has conditionally approved the listing of the units under the symbol EWP.UN.

The syndicate of agents for this offering is being led by CIBC World Markets Inc. and RBC Dominion Securities Inc., and includes BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., National Bank Financial Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., TD Securities Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., Canaccord Capital Corp., Desjardins Securities Inc., Dundee Securities Corp., First Associates Investments Inc., Raymond James Ltd. and Wellington West Capital Inc.