CI Fund Management Inc. said Monday that the assets and sales of its wholly owned subsidiary, CI Mutual Funds Inc., continued to strengthen in May.

CI’s mutual and segregated fund assets rose by 2.5% to $28.6 billion, the second straight month of growth. Over April and May, CI’s mutual and segregated fund assets grew by 5.7% or $1.5 billion. CI’s total fee-earning assets at May 31, 2003, were $33.1 billion, up 2.2% from a month earlier and up 5.9% from the end of March.

During May, CI had net redemptions of $26 million, representing a significant improvement from previous months. In addition, there were only $5 million in net redemptions from CI’s long-term funds, with $21 million coming from money market funds.

“This growth reflects the gains in world equity markets over the last two months, and the strong performance by a number of portfolio managers across CI’s broad lineup of funds,” said Stephen MacPhail, executive vice oresident, COO and CFO of CI Fund Management Inc.

In other developments in May, CI renewed its normal course issuer bid, which allows CI to repurchase for cancellation up to 11,775,235 shares, representing 5% of its outstanding shares at May 22, 2003. Mr. MacPhail noted that, over the last 12 months, CI repurchased the maximum number of shares under its previous normal course issuer bid — making it one of the few companies to actually maximize its share buyback plan.

May 31 also marked the end of CI’s 2003 fiscal year. CI plans to release its results for the fourth quarter and the fiscal year on July 15, 2003.