Norshield Introduces Unique New Fund

Date: Thursday, July 24, 2003

Norshield Financial Group (“Norshield”), an established leader in the management of hedge fund-of-funds, today announced the successful launching of a new fund: Univest Global Fund Ltd. (“Fund”). The Fund, a Cayman Islands exempted company that is listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, commenced trading on July 1, 2003. The Fund and its affiliated funds began trading with assets of US$132 million. The assets are diversified amongst eight strategies and invested with 17 managers, with more to be added in the future. The Fund has a unique structure. It offers clients the ability to customize their exposure to different alternative investment strategies through investments in the affiliated funds, which have individually managed accounts with the portfolio managers. This allows the investment manager, Norshield Investment Partners Inc. (Chicago, IL), to provide active daily risk management for each client. “Our goal was to launch a global flagship fund that differentiated itself by emphasizing customization and transparency and would cater to the institutional market,” stated John Xanthoudakis, Chairman of the Norshield Financial Group. “The level of assets that the fund already has managed to attract is an excellent first step towards achieving this objective.” This Fund is the first of several new funds that Norshield intends to launch over the coming months. For more information, please contact: Norshield Financial Group: Wayne Hendry, Director, Communications, Norshield Financial Group, 155 University Avenue, Suite 1230, Toronto, ON M5H 3B7, Canada, Tel: 866-651-1155