Altamira launches family of index funds

                  Lowest management fee in the industry

    TORONTO, Nov. 9 /CNW/ - Altamira Investment Services Inc. entered the
index fund market today with its launch of the Altamira Precision Index Funds.
Each of the three new funds will be RRSP-eligible and will have a management
expense ratio (MER) of 0.50%, the lowest cost available to the average
investor and well below the industry's average cost of approximately 1.5%
(source: Financial Post Data Group). The Funds will be available for sale on
November 11, except in provinces where regulatory approval is pending. That
approval is expected shortly.
    State Street Global Advisors will act as Sub Advisor to Altamira,
managing the funds on its behalf. The firm is a world leader in this type of
financial instrument.
    The introduction of index funds signals Altamira's strategy of providing
greater choice and diversification to meet clients' wealth management needs.
"Index funds can be an important part of a well-balanced investment
portfolio", said Chris Hodgson, Altamira's Managing Director, Wealth
Management, "and we are very pleased to add them to our product line. They
offer broad diversification by spreading risk among many companies, have low
MERs, and offer certain tax efficiencies for unitholders."
    The Precision Canadian Index Fund will target the TSE 100 Index, which
mainly consists of large cap companies. As an equity index, it will offer
unitholders tax efficiencies through low portfolio turnover and the potential
for deferring the distribution of capital gains in the portfolio.
    The Precision US RSP Index Fund will target the US Standard & Poor's 500
Index. The Precision International RSP Index Fund will be entirely non-North
American, targetting the Morgan Stanley Capital International-Europe,
Australia and Far East Index (the "MSCI-EAFE Index").
    Each fund has a $5000 investment minimum, or $50 per month for automatic
contribution plans.
    The two international funds will be structured to allow unitholders to
increase the foreign exposure of their RRSP portfolios without exceeding the
20% foreign content limit.
    "The Altamira Precision Index Funds offer a real alternative for the
Canadian investor", said Jean Dumoulin, President and Managing Director,
State Street Global Advisors Ltd. "For example, many supposedly active fund
managers are in reality 'closet indexers', in the sense that their portfolios
track indexes. Yet they still charge management fees that are more appropriate
to actively managed funds. With Altamira's Precision funds, unitholders
benefit from tracking indexes that have historically produced superior returns
over the long term, as well as a lower MER."
    Hodgson concluded, "With these new funds, our clients now have more ways
to  balance their portfolio. They can choose truly active management -- based
on strong research and sound analysis -- from among our traditional equity
funds. They can pick fixed income products that provide security through
steady and reliable returns. And now they can now choose our Precision index
funds that offer a measure of predictability through their broad
diversification.
    "It's real choice -- all within the Altamira family of 30 funds."
    State Street has been providing financial advice to clients for more than
two centuries. With 14,000 employees, the company is custodian of more than
$4.5 trillion US(x) in assets worldwide and manages assets worth $470 billion
US(x) State Street Global Advisors, an operating unit of State Street, is the
largest manager of indexed securities in the United States. The company has
offices in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
    Altamira is a market leader in no-load mutual funds in Canada and offers
a wide range of products and services to individual and institutional clients.
It is headquartered in Toronto with offices across the country.

    (x) As at June 30, 1998

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For further information: Chris Hodgson, Managing Director, Wealth
 Management, Altamira Investment Services Inc., (416) 507-7189

News release courtesy Canada NewsWire.

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