Mutual Fund Updates

AGF Canadian Growth Equity Class

AGF needs to update its website description of this fund. The positioning statement describes it as: “A growth Canadian equity fund identifying micro- to mid-cap companies poised for success.” Oh, really? Now check out the Top 10 holdings. Hmmm. We see names such as Petro-Canada, Teck Cominco, Canadian Oil Sands Trust, and Cameco. By what stretch of the imagination do these qualify as “micro- to mid-cap companies”? The fund is officially classified as Canadian Equity which makes a lot more sense in the context of the portfolio.

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AGF Canadian Stock Fund

This fund is the product of a number of mergers. It was originally the AGF Canadian Growth Fund, and the Canadian Equity Fund merged into it in 1998. Then in 2001, the Global Strategy Growth & Income Fund and the Global Strategy Canadian Companies Fund were folded into it as well. Consequently, manager Martin Hubbes has had to juggle a variety of portfolios along the way.

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AGF Canadian Resources Class

This fund was a long-time underachiever but it has looked much better in recent years. Although the 10-year numbers are only average for the Natural Resources category, returns from one to five years are well above the peer group norms. The average annual compound rate of return for the three years to June 30/07 was 35.4%, more than five percentage points better than the average for the category.

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imaxx U.S. Equity Value Fund

The team that runs this value-oriented fund is with the Bear Stearns investment house of New York so perhaps it follows logically that more than a third of the portfolio is in financial service stocks with Citigroup and Bank of America topping the list.

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imaxx U.S. Equity Growth Fund

Fund Company AEGON Fund Management Fund Type                     U.S. Equity Rating $$$ Style Growth Risk Level Medium Load Status Optional RRSP/RRIF Suitability Good TFSA Suitability Good Manager Gary Rolle since June 2002 MER 2.96% Code AFM 260 – Front End Units AFM 160 – DSC Units AFM 560 – Low Load Units Minimum Investment $1,000    Analysis: The goal of this fund is to produce capital...

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imaxx Global Equity Value Fund

The managers of this fund use a fundamental, bottom-up approach in selecting stocks so you’d think they’d be doing better. However, this fund has been an underperformer since its launch in mid-2002 – albeit, in fairness, the current team only assumed responsibility in July 2004. Although this is billed as a global fund, 75% of the assets are in U.S. companies which means that the rapid rise of the Canadian dollar has been a major factor in the poor results.

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