Sceptre Investment Counsel Ltd. today announced it will be mailing an information circular highlighting the proposed changes to the Sceptre Income & Growth Trust and the Sceptre Income & High Growth Trust.

Unitholders will vote on the changes at a special meeting scheduled for June 8.

The changes are also subject to regulatory approval.

“We believe the proposed changes will be highly attractive to investors. Each change is in the best interest of investors and in combination provides more value to investors at a lower cost than the current structure” said Richard Knowles, president and CEO of Sceptre.

As outlined in the information circular, there are several proposals to better position the funds for continued success. These include:

  1. Expanding the investment strategy to include additional asset classes and a greater range of allowable investments within those asset classes. This change will allow unitholders more opportunity to benefit from Sceptre’s proven investment results.
  2. The NAV of the funds will be calculated and disclosed daily instead of weekly.
  3. The management fee of the funds will decline from 1.10% to 1.05% of net assets per year.
  4. The two funds will be merged and converted to an open ended mutual fund thereby providing greater scale and reducing costs.
  5. The units of the funds will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange further reducing costs.
  6. Investors will be able to redeem daily at NAV less a fee starting at 2.00% and declining to zero within two years. This is a significant improvement to the current and historical discount in the secondary market. The funds have traditionally traded at a discount to NAV of between 2% and 5%.
  7. Investors will receive a higher effective monthly yield with a reset in the distributions paid to unitholders.
  8. The funds will appoint Return On Innovation Management Ltd. (ROI) as trustee and Manager. ROI will introduce seven new series of the fund offering different distribution and management fees while giving investors the ability to switch between series without triggering a capital gain.



Sceptre’s award winning investment management teams will continue to manage the combined assets as subadvisor to the merged fund with an investment objective of paying monthly distributions equal to approximately 7% per year and to increase the NAV of the units in the medium to long-term.

“Together, Sceptre and ROI Capital created the ROI Sceptre Canadian Pension Fund a year ago which has generated impressive returns for investors. We also expect good things for investors from this transition,” said John Sterling, CEO of ROI Capital.

Since inception, the Sceptre Income & Growth Trust and the Sceptre Income & High Growth Trust have consistently paid their targeted monthly distributions.

Sceptre is a leading Canadian independent investment management firm with assets under supervision of approximately $9 billion.