MINT Income Fund - Exchange and Cash Offering - Maximum $200 Million

TORONTO , Jan. 26 /CNW/ - MINT Income Fund ("MINT" or the "Fund") is pleased to announce that it has filed a preliminary short form prospectus in connection with an offering of its units (the "Units") in exchange for securities of Exchange Eligible Issuers. In addition, the Fund may accept cash subscriptions for Units and the Offering will remain open for acceptance until 5:00 p.m. Toronto time on February 12, 2010 . The Exchange Ratios will be disclosed in a final short form prospectus to be filed on or about February 17, 2010 .

The net proceeds of the Offering will be invested by the Fund in accordance with its investment objectives. The investment objectives of the Fund are to provide holders of Units with:

    
    (i)    a high level of sustainable income distributed monthly (currently
           targeted to be $0.07 per Unit per month, or $0.84 per Unit per
           annum, which represents a yield of 8.4% based upon the closing
           price of the Units on the Toronto Stock Exchange on December 31,
           2009);

    (ii)   a cost-effective method of reducing the risk of investing in high
           income securities; and

    (iii)  the potential for capital appreciation by investing in an actively
           managed, diversified portfolio comprised primarily of high
           yielding equity securities, including income trusts as they
           transition to taxable entities and convert to corporations.
    

In addition, the Fund's Units may be surrendered for redemption annually in November of each year.

For a list of Exchange Eligible Issuers please see the preliminary prospectus dated January 18, 2010 or visit our website www.middlefield.com. The Dealer Managers for this Offering are Canaccord Financial Ltd. and Middlefield Capital Corporation. Concurrent with this Offering, MINT has also filed a preliminary prospectus for a warrant offering to existing MINT unitholders.

MINT Income Fund trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol MID.UN.

Certain statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking information, including statements regarding cash-on-cash yield. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause estimates to differ materially from the expectations expressed, including the risk that the per Unit distributions may decrease below the amount used in calculating the cash-on-cash yield, which could occur for various reasons beyond the control of the Fund such as a decrease in the distributions paid by the issuers of securities included in the Fund's portfolio or a change in general economic conditions. The forward-looking information contained in this press release constitutes the Fund's current estimate, as of the date of this press release, with respect to the matters covered hereby. Investors and others should not assume that any forward-looking statement contained in this press release represents the Fund's estimate as of any date other than the date of this press release.

For further information: or to obtain a copy of the prospectus, please visit our website at www.middlefield.com or contact Nancy Tham, Senior Vice-President, at [phone] or toll-free at 1-888-890-1868