Merchant Capital completes @rgentum acquisition

Date: Thursday, November 21, 2002

Merchant Capital Group Inc. has completed the acquisition of @rgentum Management and Research Corp. Regulatory approval for the transfer of ownership of @rgentum to Merchant Capital was received on October 24, from the provincial security commissions. Subsequent to the receipt of the change of control approval, @rgentum filed on November 5, 2002 the preliminary simplified prospectus and preliminary annual information form for the following new mutual funds: @rgentum Short Term Asset Portfolio; @rgentum Income Portfolio; @rgentum Canadian Equity Portfolio; @rgentum Canadian Performance Portfolio; @rgentum U.S. Master Portfolio; @rgentum International Master Portfolio; @rgentum Discovery Portfolio; @rgentum Quebec Balanced Portfolio; @rgentum Canadian L/S Equity Portfolio; and, @rgentum U.S. Market Neutral Portfolio. @rgentum expects the new funds above to be available for purchase by Canadian investors subject to the receipt from the relevant securities commissions of their approval of the preliminary prospectuses and preliminary annual information forms filed. Merchant Capital Securities Corporation, the wholly owned financial services subsidiary of Merchant Capital, also announced that it received on August 21, change in control approval from the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada for its previously announced acquisition of Practitioner's Mutual Planning Inc. On November 12, Practitioners changed its name to Merchant Capital Wealth Management Corp.