Press Releases
ONE Financial Introduces Canada's Only Family of Guaranteed Stock Market Investments
Innovative Investments in Family Both Guarantee Investors' Original Investment, and Automatically Lock-In Profits on a Daily Basis
Toronto, Ontario - October 18, 2005
ONE Financial Corporation ("ONE Financial") today announced the launch of a family of ten Guaranteed Linked Notes, comprised of seven "Profit Lock-In Notes" and three "Profit Lock-In & Cashflow Notes" (the "Notes"). "Our new Family of Notes offer investors a greater level of choice, flexibility and security than has ever been available in the world of stock-market investing," said Jeffrey O'Brien, President and CEO, ONE Financial.
Guaranteed Linked Notes (GLNs) are a relatively recent investment phenomenon in Canada; like GICs, they guarantee 100% of investors' original investment, however their returns are linked to various stock market investments that generally provide the potential for much higher returns than GICs. Also unlike GICs, GLNs are usually cashable in a weekly secondary market prior to their maturity (subject to certain terms and conditions). ONE Financial has been a Canadian pioneer in the world of GLNs, and has now taken this investment concept two steps further.
The Notes are Canada's Only Family of Guaranteed Linked Notes, providing investors with the flexibility to switch between any of the ten Notes in the Family at any time in response to changing market conditions or personal investment objectives. Each Note in the Family offers a return linked to a different investment basket, including baskets of stock market indexes from leading providers, covering the G7 countries, Canada, the U.S., and Asia, oil, the price of gold, baskets of income trusts, and even a "Global Balanced" basket for the most conservative investors. In addition, each of the three "Cashflow" Note options also provides tax-efficient quarterly cash flows for income-oriented investors.
A New Level of Security: Automatic Daily Profit Lock-In
Each of the Notes in ONE Financial's Family also provides an unprecedented level of security. In addition to guaranteeing original investment principal, the Notes are the first in Canada to provide a guarantee level that actually rises along with each Note's net asset value, automatically locking in any investment growth on a daily basis. This guarantees that investors will receive for each note held until maturity, at the very minimum, their original investment amount plus the highest growth the Note achieves on any day prior to maturity. The principal and profit lock-in guarantees are provided by BNP Paribas, the sixth largest bank in the world (the notes are issued by BNP Paribas S.A. (Canada)). At approximately $1.7 trillion in assets, BNP Paribas is approximately the size of Canada's five largest banks combined.
The Notes also provide the potential for enhanced income and growth; by automatically providing investors with up to 2x exposure to the investments in the baskets underlying the notes, the Notes offer potential income and growth far greater than that of a direct investment in the underlying basket of stocks, income trusts, or indexes.
"This is the most comprehensive Guaranteed Linked Notes offering available in Canada," says Mr. O'Brien. "We truly believe that our financial engineering has once again taken guaranteed stock market investing, and investing in general, to new heights." Unlike most Guaranteed Linked Notes, the ONE Financial Notes are available for purchase on a continuous year round basis, with a new series of each Note anticipated to be issued once per calendar quarter. The Notes are 100% eligible for RRSPs and other registered plans.
One of Canada's fastest growing investment products firms, ONE Financial is focused on providing Canadian investors with truly innovative wealth management solutions. ONE Financial maintains distinctive expertise in the area of Guaranteed Linked Notes, and can take credit for numerous product innovations that have helped shape the structured product and Guaranteed Linked Notes categories in Canada. Since pioneering the first stock market-linked note launched Canada-wide in 2002, ONE Financial has now raised approximately $250 million in this exciting asset class.
Important Information
Important details about each of the Notes are described in each product's Master Information Statement and the relevant Information Statement Supplement (the "Offering Documents"); investors should obtain and read carefully a copy of the relevant Offering Documents (available on request) prior to investing, paying particular attention to the risks associated with an investment in the relevant Notes.
