CI Financial reports third quarter results: Earnings per share increase 6%

TSX Symbol: CIX

TORONTO, Nov. 5, 2015 /CNW/ - CI Financial Corp. ("CI") today released unaudited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2015.

QUARTERLY RESULTS (in $millions except for per share data)^1	Quarter ended September 30, 2015	Quarter ended September 30, 2014	% change
Assets Under Management	105,296	100,810	4
Average Assets Under Management	108,541	101,016	7
Net Income	142.8	135.1	6
Earnings Per Share	0.51	0.48	6
EBITDA Per Share^2	0.85	0.81	5
Pre-Tax Operating Earnings Per Share^2	0.81	0.77	5
Cash Provided By Operating Activities	180.6	200.8	(10)
Free Cash Flow^2	160.8	148.0	9
OTHER METRICS	Quarter ended September 30, 2015	Quarter ended September 30, 2014	% change
Dividends Recorded Per Share (in $)	0.330	0.300	10
Long-Term Debt (in $millions; including current portion)	435.6	499.3	(13)
Net Debt (in $millions)^2	321.7	220.2	46
SG&A Expenses^3	34.0 bps	33.8 bps	1
Return on Equity	29.9%	26.8%	n/a

^1	All results are net of non-controlling interest.
^2	EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), pre-tax operating earnings, free cash flow and net debt are not standardized measures prescribed by IFRS; however, management uses these financial measures and also believes that most of its shareholders, creditors, other stakeholders and investment analysts prefer to include the use of these performance measures in analyzing CI's results. These non-IFRS measures and reconciliations to IFRS, where necessary, are included in Management's Discussion and Analysis available at www.cifinancial.com.
^3	As an annualized percentage of average assets under management.

Average assets under management for the third quarter were $108.5 billion, an increase of 7% from the same quarter in the previous year. At September 30, 2015, CI's assets under management were $105.3 billion, up 4% from $100.8 billion at September 30, 2014. Net sales of $3.1 billion in the first nine months of 2015 were the second highest in over a decade and close to the pace set in 2014.

"Despite the market volatility throughout the latter part of the quarter, CI continues to post asset growth in 2015," said Stephen A. MacPhail, CI President and Chief Executive Officer. "Over the past month, CI's assets under management increased significantly and we are currently within a few percentage points of our all-time high in assets reached earlier this year."

"We continue to see growth in CI's Assante Wealth Management and Stonegate Private Counsel businesses, especially from affluent investors who are attracted to the firms' comprehensive wealth management services."

Net income for the quarter was $142.8 million, a 6% increase over $135.1 million in the third quarter of 2014. Earnings per share were $0.51, up 6% from $0.48 in the third quarter of 2014.

Pre-tax operating earnings per share were $0.81 for the quarter, up 5% from the quarter ended September 30, 2014. EBITDA per share also increased 5% to $0.85 in the third quarter of 2015 from $0.81 in the third quarter of 2014.

CI continued to maintain its discretionary spending in line with the rate of growth in assets under management. Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses as an annualized percentage of average assets under management were 34.0 basis points in the quarter ended September 30, 2015 compared to 33.8 basis points in the same quarter of 2014.

CI generated $160.8 million in free cash flow during the quarter ended September 30, 2015. This represented a 9% increase compared to $148.0 million in the third quarter of 2014. CI's cash flow facilitated the repurchase of $69.5 million in CI shares and the payment of $91.9 million in dividends during the third quarter. As at October 31, 2015, CI had 275,924,117 shares outstanding.

"The recent announcement of CI's acquisition of First Asset Capital Corp., a firm specializing in actively managed ETFs and run by President and CEO Barry Gordon, represents CI's commitment to providing a comprehensive offering of managed investment solutions to our investors," said Mr. MacPhail.

The Board of Directors declared a monthly cash dividend of $0.11 per share payable on each of December 15, 2015, January 15, and February 12, 2016 to shareholders of record on November 30 and December 31, 2015 and January 31, 2016, respectively. The monthly dividend represents a yield of 4.2% on CI's closing share price of $31.08 on November 4, 2015.

For detailed financial statements for the quarter ended September 30, 2015, including Management's Discussion and Analysis, which contains discussions of non-IFRS measures, please refer to CI's website at www.cifinancial.com under Reports, or contact [email protected].

Analysts' Conference Call
CI will hold a conference call with analysts today at 4 p.m. Eastern time. President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen MacPhail and Chief Financial Officer Douglas Jamieson will be presenting CI's results. Also attending will be Derek Green, President of CI Investments, Steven Donald, President of Assante Wealth Management and Neal Kerr, President, CI Institutional & Investment Management. The call and a slide presentation will be accessible through a webcast at www.ci.com/q3. Alternatively, investors may listen to the discussion by dialling [phone] or 1-866-696-5910 (passcode: 1013923). The call will be available for playback until November 19, 2015 at [phone] or 1-800-408-3053 (passcode: 4776177). The webcast will be archived at www.ci.com/q3.

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

This press release contains forward-looking statements with respect to CI and its products and services, including its business operations and strategy and financial performance and condition. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include, among other things, general economic and market factors, including interest rates, business competition, changes in government regulations or in tax laws, and other factors discussed in materials filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time.

SOURCE CI Financial Corp.

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