Barclays Global Investors Canada Ltd. announced today that it has called a special meeting of unitholders to approve a change to the investment objective of iUnits Government of Canada 10-Year Bond Fund. The meeting is scheduled for December 15.

The fund’s current investment objective is to replicate the return of the benchmark 10-year Government of Canada bond. Barclays Canada is proposing that the fund change its objective to replicate the return of the Scotia Capital Universe Bond Index by investing in a regularly rebalanced portfolio of bonds that closely matches the characteristics of the SC Universe Bond Index.

The SC Universe Bond Index consists of a broadly diversified range of investment grade Canadian government and corporate bonds with a term to maturity of more than one year.


“This change will give the Fund a more diversified exposure to the broad Canadian investment grade bond market. We believe that this approach will reduce the degree of fluctuations of the fund’s returns over time and provide the potential for more favourable performance during periods of rising interest rates. Additionally, under the new investment objective, we expect that the fund will be able to make quarterly rather than semi-annual distributions,” said Howard Atkinson, head of public funds, Barclays Canada, in a release.

In connection with the proposed change to the investment objective, Barclays Canada is also proposing to change the name of the fund to “iUnits Canadian Bond Broad Market Index Fund” and to increase the annual trustee fee from 0.25% to 0.30% of the fund’s net asset value. The increase in the fee is primarily due to anticipated increased portfolio management activities and the license fee payable for the use of the SC Universe Bond Index.

Unitholders will also be asked at the meeting to approve certain other changes related to the change in the fund’s proposed portfolio holdings.

An information circular providing details on the proposed changes will be sent shortly to the fund’s unitholders.

If the change to the investment objective and related matters are approved at the meeting, Barclays Canada expects that the proposed changes will be effective on December 22.