CI Investments Inc. today announced the launch of Signature Global Income & Growth Fund, which offers Canadian investors a monthly distribution, exposure to global financial markets, and the expertise of CI’s award-winning Signature Advisors investment management team.

CI also announced the introduction of a corporate class version of its popular CI Global High Dividend Advantage Fund, which focuses on dividend-paying global companies.

Signature Global Income & Growth Fund, which is also available as Signature Global Income & Growth Corporate Class, is a balanced fund designed to provide income and long-term growth by investing in a diversified portfolio of global equity and income securities.

The fund has a highly flexible mandate with no restrictions on the portfolio’s asset class and geographic allocations. Lead Portfolio Manager is Eric Bushell, chief investment officer of Signature Advisors.

“Eric Bushell and the portfolio managers and analysts at Signature have posted exceptional results in their Canadian equity and income funds, and this new fund allows them the freedom to select their best investment opportunities on a global basis,” said Peter Anderson, CI CEO.

The fund will pay a distribution of five cents per month, for an annual yield of 6% based on its net asset value at inception of $10 per unit. The fund will have an initial asset allocation of approximately 60% equities and 20% in high-yield bonds, with the remainder invested in government bonds and investment-grade corporate bonds, other income securities and cash.

The fund will take full advantage of the Signature team’s expertise in researching and selecting global securities. Signature manages more than $21.5 billion in assets across various equity, income and balanced mandates, of which approximately $5 billion is invested in foreign securities.

“Over the past five years, we have focused on building a global research capability within Signature Advisors, and the end of the foreign content limit and the continued consolidation of publicly traded Canadian companies have confirmed that this was the right decision,” Bushell said.

Signature Global Income & Growth is the global equivalent of Signature Income & Growth Fund, a successful income-oriented balanced fund that invests primarily in Canadian securities.

Signature Global Income & Growth Corporate Class is part of CI’s tax efficient corporate class structure. As such, the fund does not pay a monthly distribution, but its earnings will be retained within the fund.

CI has also launched CI Global High Dividend Advantage Corporate Class, a version of CI Global High Dividend Advantage Fund, an income-oriented global equity fund managed by Wall Street veteran William Priest and his team at Epoch Investment Partners Inc. of New York. CI Global High Dividend Advantage Fund uses a value-driven approach to invest in companies with growing cash flow and dividends. The fund has gathered about $582 million in assets since its launch in January 2006.