CI Financial reports growth in assets under management of 8% in 2015

TSX Symbol: CIX

TORONTO, Jan. 4, 2016 /CNW/ - CI Financial Corp. ("CI") today reported assets under management at December 31, 2015 of $111.1 billion and total assets of $145.6 billion.

Assets under management were up $2.8 billion or 2.6% in the month of December, largely reflecting the acquisition of First Asset Capital Corp. with $2.9 billion in assets under management. For the 12-month period, assets under management grew by $8.2 billion or 7.9%. Total assets gained $10.9 billion or 8.1% year over year and were up $2.8 billion or 2.0% in December. Meanwhile, the S&P/TSX Composite Index declined 8.3% over the 12-month period and was down 3.1% in the month of December.

Excluding the First Asset acquisition, CI's assets under management at December 31, 2015 were down 0.1% for the month of December and up 5.1% year over year.

Average assets under management for the fiscal year 2015 were $108.4 billion, an increase of $10.0 billion or 10.1% over the average for fiscal 2014. Average assets under management for the fourth quarter of 2015 were $108.7 billion, up 0.1% from the third quarter of 2015.

CI also reported assets under advisement at Assante Wealth Management (Canada) Ltd. and Stonegate Private Counsel of $34.6 billion at December 31, 2015, an increase of 8.5% year over year.

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. December 31, 2015 PRELIMINARY MONTH-END STATISTICS
ENDING ASSETS	Dec. 31/15 (millions)	Nov. 30/15 (millions)	% Change	Dec. 31/14 (millions)	% Change
Assets under management	$111,062	$108,256	2.6%	$102,886	7.9%
Assets under advisement*	34,580	34,572	0.0%	31,874	8.5%
TOTAL	$145,642	$142,828	2.0%	$134,760	8.1%

MONTHLY AVERAGE ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT	Dec. 31/15 (millions)	Nov. 30/15  (millions)	% Change
Monthly average	$110,725	$108,031	2.5%

FISCAL QUARTER AVERAGE ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT	Ending Dec. 31/15 (millions)	Ending Sept. 30/15 (millions)	% Change
Fiscal quarter average	$108,669	$108,541	0.1%

FISCAL YEAR AVERAGE ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT	Fiscal 2015  (millions)	Fiscal 2014 (millions)	% Change
Fiscal year average	$108,379	$98,408	10.1%

EQUITY		FINANCIAL POSITION (millions)
Total outstanding shares	276,026,778	Debt outstanding	$560
QTD weighted avg. shares	276,031,411	Net debt outstanding	$442
Current Yield	4.3%
Potential share dilution from options	313,827	Terminal redemption value of funds	$650
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	35%	Asia	5%
United States	36%	Other	4%
Europe	15%	Cash	5%

CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX) is an independent, Canadian-owned wealth management company. CI offers a broad range of investment products and services, and is on the Web at www.cifinancial.com.

SOURCE CI Financial Corp.

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