CI Financial reports assets under management

TSX Symbol: CIX

TORONTO, March 1, 2016 /CNW/ - CI Financial Corp. ("CI") today reported assets under management at February 29, 2016 of $106.5 billion and total assets of $139.9 billion.

Assets under management declined 1.3% in the month of February and were down 2.3% year over year. Total assets were down 1.2% in February and declined 2.1% year over year. Meanwhile, the S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 0.5% in February and fell 12.9% over the 12-month period.

Average assets under management for the quarter and year-to-date were $106.9 billion, a decrease of 1.6% from the average for the fourth quarter of 2015 and a decrease of 1.3% from the average for fiscal year 2015.

CI reported assets under advisement at Assante Wealth Management (Canada) Ltd. and Stonegate Private Counsel of $33.4 billion at February 29, 2016, a decline of 1.5% year over year.

Also in February, CI received notable mentions in Brendan Wood International's 2015/2016 TopGun announcements. Seven CI investment professionals were named TopGun Investment Minds, and CI Investments was named the No. 2 overall TopGun Investment Team. CI's TopGun Investment Minds for 2015/2016 are Brandon Snow, Greg Dean and Stephen Groff of Cambridge Global Asset Management and Stephane Champagne, Hoa Hong, Malcolm White and Jeremy Yeung of Signature Global Asset Management. The TopGun Investment Minds were chosen by 265 sell-side professionals who cast their ballots for the investors they believed to be the leaders of thought in the industry during the past year.

Furthermore, President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen MacPhail was named a TopGun CEO and was one of just 28 Canadian executives overall and one of just three in the financial institutions group to receive this designation. TopGun CEOs were chosen by a voting panel comprised of over 500 investors and sell-side professionals. According to Brendan Wood International, "The TopGun CEO designation is an expression of the highest level of confidence in a CEO by major institutional investors who own or have the ability to own the stock in sizable stakes."

Additional information about CI's assets and financial position can be found below in the tables of preliminary statistics and on its website, www.cifinancial.com, in the Statistics section. These are the only statistics authorized by CI and CI takes no responsibility for reporting by any external sources.

CI FINANCIAL CORP. February 29, 2016 PRELIMINARY MONTH-END STATISTICS
ENDING ASSETS	Feb. 29/16 (millions)	Jan. 31/16 (millions)	% Change	Feb. 28/15 (millions)	% Change
Assets under management	$106,486	$107,928	-1.3%	$108,977	-2.3%
Assets under advisement*	33,440	33,684	-0.7%	33,948	-1.5%
TOTAL	$139,926	$141,612	-1.2%	$142,925	-2.1%

MONTHLY AVERAGE ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT	Feb. 29/16 (millions)	Jan. 31/16  (millions)	% Change
Monthly average	$105,842	$107,978	-2.0%
FISCAL QUARTER AVERAGE ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT	Ending Feb. 29/16  (millions)	Ending Dec. 31/15 (millions)	% Change
Fiscal quarter average	$106,945	$108,688	-1.6%
FISCAL YEAR AVERAGE ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT	Ending Feb. 29/16  (millions)	Fiscal 2015 (millions)	% Change
Fiscal year average	$106,945	$108,384	-1.3%

EQUITY		FINANCIAL POSITION (millions)
Total outstanding shares	275,165,992	Debt outstanding	$600
QTD weighted avg. shares	275,728,426	Net debt outstanding	$500
Current Yield	4.4%
Potential share dilution from options	361,508	Terminal redemption value of funds	$626
All options % of shares	2.5%

* Includes assets managed by CI and held by clients of advisors with Assante and Stonegate Private Counsel.

ESTIMATED GEOGRAPHIC EXPOSURE OF AUM
Canada	36%	Asia	4%
United States	34%	Other	4%
Europe	14%	Cash	8%

CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX) is an independent, Canadian-owned wealth management company. Its primary operating businesses are CI Investments Inc., one of Canada's largest investment managers, advisory businesses Assante Wealth Management and Stonegate Private Counsel, and First Asset Capital Corp., a leader in providing actively managed exchange-traded funds to the Canadian marketplace. CI is on the Web at www.cifinancial.com.

SOURCE CI Investments Inc.

Stephen A. MacPhail, President and Chief Executive Officer, CI Financial Corp., [phone]