CI Financial announced today that it is upping its bid for Clarington Corp. to $14.75 a share, and reiterated its plans to substantially reduce fees for Clarington Funds unitholders.

Last week, CI withdrew its bid for Clarington after the firm hammered out a friendly takeover agreement that would see Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. pay $14.25 a share for Clarington.

Under the CI offer, shareholders of Clarington can elect to receive $14.75 in cash, CI shares, or a mix of cash and CI shares for each Clarington share.

CI’s bid price takes into consideration the $7 million break fee the Clarington board of directors provided to Industrial Alliance in connection with its bid.

CI said it expects to mail its offer to Clarington shareholders as soon as reasonably possible following delivery by Clarington of updated lists of its securityholders.

Should its bid prove successful this time, CI said Clarington’s mutual fund unitholders will benefit from significant management expense ratio reductions as the Clarington funds are aligned with the lower cost structure of existing CI funds.

CI said cutting the MERs will provide approximately $81 million in benefits to Clarington Fund unitholders by way of reduced fees over the next seven years.

Its offer includes reductions to the MERs of the majority of Clarington Funds within 12 months.

“These MER reductions are clearly a benefit to Clarington Fund unitholders that must be considered in the overall evaluation of our offer,” said Stephen MacPhail, CI’s president and COO, in a release.

“Any other offer that does not match these clearly isn’t an equivalent offer and disregards the fiduciary obligation to the mutual fund unitholders.”