Unitholders of Bloom Income & Growth Canadian Fund (TSX:BI.UN) and Bloom Select Income Fund (TSX:BLB.UN) will be asked to approve the merger of the two funds at special meeting scheduled for Sept. 24, Toronto-based Bloom Investment Counsel, Inc. announced on Monday.

Unitholders of BI.UN will be asked to consider and approve, among other things, the merger the fund into BLB.UN, and unitholders of BLB.UN will be asked to consider and approve, certain amendments to BLB.UN’s declaration of trust.

The merger is subject to the satisfaction of all regulatory requirements including approval by unitholders of BI.UN, Bloom says in a statement.

If approved, Bloom expects the merger will be implemented on Oct, 9. Upon completion of the merger, unitholders of BI.UN will receive units of BLB.UN. Provided the merger is approved, unitholders of BI.UN will have the right to redeem their units in connection with the merger pursuant to a special redemption right, at the close of business on Oct. 6. BI.UN will be wound up as soon as reasonably practicable following the merger, Bloom says.

It is anticipated that investors in the funds will benefit from the merger due to reduced costs to unitholders of both funds, increased economies of scale, a larger asset base for BLB.UN and enhanced liquidity through expected higher trading volume on the Toronto Stock Exchange in units of BLB.UN, Bloom adds.

The cost of effecting the merger will be borne by Bloom and not by the funds, the company notes.

The Independent Review Committee of the funds has considered has provided the Bloom with a positive recommendation to implement the merger, the company says.

Bloom also announced an amendment to the declaration of trust of BLB.UN to remove the service fee of 0.50% of net asset value (NAV) per year as of end of day Sept. 30, 2015 (being the end of the current quarterly cycle for such service fee payments). The company is proposing this amendment in recognition of an industry trend, exhibited by the actions of fund managers when launching new funds, input from investment advisors and by comments from securities regulators, away from the historical practice of paying service fees, Bloom says.

Bloom Investment specializes in the management of segregated investment portfolios for wealthy individuals, corporations, institutions and trusts. The company also manages specialty high-income equity portfolios comprised of dividend paying common equity securities, income trusts and real estate investment trusts.