CI Investments wins seven Canadian Investment Awards, including Equity Fund
Manager of the Year for Eric Bushell

TSX Symbol: CIX

TORONTO , Dec. 3 /CNW/ - CI Investments Inc. congratulates Eric Bushell , Chief Investment Officer of Signature Global Advisors, for being named 2009 Morningstar Equity Fund Manager of the Year at last night's Canadian Investment Awards gala.

The Equity Fund Manager of the Year award, which is designated by Morningstar Canada , a leading investment fund research firm, honours the equity fund manager who has produced outstanding results over the past year and the long term, and who Morningstar analysts believe is an excellent steward of unitholder capital.

"Eric has produced stellar long-term results as a portfolio manager and as Chief Investment Officer of Signature," said Peter W. Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of CI. "He has built an accomplished and highly skilled team of portfolio managers and analysts, who are achieving strong returns across the Signature group of income, equity and balanced funds."

Three funds managed by the Signature team took top honours in their categories. Signature Canadian Balanced Fund was the winner of the Canadian balanced fund category, and Signature Dividend Fund was the winning Canadian dividend and income equity fund. In addition, Signature Canadian Resource Fund, managed by Scott Vali, topped the natural resources equity category. Notably, all three of these funds have previously been category winners.

Signature Select Canadian Fund, a Canadian equity fund managed by Mr. Bushell since its inception in 1998, was a finalist in the Canadian equity category, and is on the list of Morningstar Fund Analyst Picks.

In explaining their selection, Morningstar Senior Analyst Philip Lee said, " Eric Bushell rarely tops the performance charts in any given year, but consistency has been his hallmark. We attribute much of his success to his ability to tactically shift assets between countries, currencies, sectors, and asset classes. Despite a challenging and volatile year, he's adroitly juggled all of the fund's moving parts and produced a respectable return."

Mr. Bushell began his career as an equity analyst and trader at BPI Mutual Funds before becoming a portfolio manager at the firm. He joined CI's Signature team in 1999 when BPI became part of CI Investments. He was named Chief Investment Officer in 2002. Signature is CI's largest in-house portfolio management team, with a staff of 24 investment professionals and approximately $23 billion in assets under management.

In addition, CI is honoured to have been named Analysts' Choice Investment Fund Company of the Year for the third time in four years. This award is selected by a group of independent analysts for excellence in nine key areas: performance, management, breadth of core fund category representation, community investment, industry service, investor and advisor education, volatility/risk, fund governance and communication to unitholders. CI was also chosen as Advisors' Choice Investment Fund Company of the Year in 2005.

"We appreciate the Fund Company of the Year award as it speaks to our most important goals at CI - providing advisors and their clients with a wide selection of high-quality investment products and services with top portfolio management expertise," said Mr. Anderson . "We thank our industry colleagues for this recognition."

In other categories, CI American Value Fund was the winner of the U.S. equity category. This is the fifth straight year that the fund, managed by William Priest and David Pearl of Epoch Investment Partners, Inc., has been recognized at the Investment Awards. CI Global Science and Technology Corporate Class, managed by François Campeau of Trilogy Global Advisors, won the science and technology equity fund award.

In addition, these CI funds were finalists (silver or bronze winners) in their categories: Harbour Fund, Signature Income & Growth Fund, CI American Small Companies Fund, CI Global Small Companies Fund, CI Pacific Fund, and CI Global Health Sciences Corporate Class.

CI Investments Inc. is one of Canada's largest investment management companies. It offers a broad range of investment products and services, including an industry-leading selection of investment funds, and is on the Web at www.ci.com. CI is subsidiary of CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX), an independent, Canadian-owned wealth management firm with approximately $87.6 billion in fee-earning assets as of November 30, 2009 .

For further information: Murray Oxby, Director, Communications, CI Investments Inc., [phone]