CI Mutual Funds Inc. today announced that it has formed a sub-advisory relationship with a new investment management firm, Picton Mahoney Asset Management, which will carry on business under the name Synergy Asset Management.

The principals are David Picton and Michael Mahoney, who were formerly employed by CI as portfolio managers of the Synergy Funds Group. Through their firm, they will continue to manage all of the same fund portfolios as before.

“We are pleased to have this new relationship with David Picton and Michael Mahoney and their team, who have posted first-quartile results and established themselves as the leading momentum investment managers in Canada,” said Peter Anderson, CI president and CEO. “This opens up new opportunities for the Synergy team while ensuring that investors in the Synergy funds will continue to benefit from their expertise.”

“We are proud to be founding Synergy Asset Management, a new employee-owned portfolio management firm with over $1.5 billion of assets under management and a proven, close-knit team of investment professionals,” said Picton, President of Synergy Asset Management.

Effective November 10, 2004, Synergy Asset Management has become portfolio advisor to Synergy American Momentum Fund, Synergy American Momentum Sector Fund, Synergy Canadian Momentum Class, Synergy Canadian Momentum Sector Fund, Synergy Canadian Style Management Class, Synergy Extreme Canadian Equity Fund, Synergy Extreme Global Equity Fund, Synergy Global Momentum Sector Fund, Synergy Global Style Management Sector Fund, Synergy Tactical Asset Allocation Fund, and a portion of the portfolio of CI American Managers Sector Fund.

The change indirectly affects Synergy American Momentum RSP Fund, Synergy Extreme Global Equity RSP Fund, Synergy Global Momentum RSP Fund, Synergy Global Style Management RSP Fund, and CI American Managers RSP Fund.

CI is also changing the names of funds managed by the Synergy team to delete the word “momentum.” Given that the Synergy brand is now identified with the Picton and Mahoney team, who use the momentum investment approach, the use of the word momentum in the funds’ names has become unnecessary.

A number of segregated funds are also having their names changed because of the appointment in June of the Synergy team as portfolio advisors to the former Landmark American Fund, which has become Synergy American Fund. In addition, as a result of the changes, Insight Units of Synergy Canadian Momentum Class will become Insight Units of Synergy Canadian Class.

The name changes are effective December 1. For a complete list of the affected funds, please refer to the company’s news release.

In other developments, CI is reviewing the risk classification system for its lineup of funds in an effort to simplify the investment process for investors and advisors.

As a first step, CI has modified the risk classifications for 13 funds, including several of its largest Canadian equity and income funds. CI expects to modify the classifications of a number of other funds when it renews its Simplified Prospectus in 2005.

The changes are designed to create more consistency in the risk classifications within CI Funds and with the rest of the industry. Specifically, each fund will fall into one of three risk classifications — low, medium or high — depending on its asset class, management approach and historical volatility. Classifications such as “low to medium” and “medium to high” will be dropped in favour of the more precise system. In conjunction with this change, CI is also clarifying the investor time horizons associated with each fund.

For a complete list of the he new risk classifications and investor time horizons for the 13 funds, please refer to the company’s news release.