ONE Financial Unveils Second MSCI Guaranteed Note

Date: Wednesday, August 25, 2004

ONE Financial launched its second principal guaranteed note tied to the MSCI Hedge Invest Index. The notes, called ONE Financial MSCI Hedge Invest Index Notes, Series 2, are available to the public with a minimum investment of C$2,000 (about US$1,500) and are linked to the MSCI Hedge Invest Lyxor Tracker fund. Société Générale (Canada) issued and guaranteed the notes at maturity, December 2013. The MSCI index is managed by Morgan Stanley Capital International, Geneva, Switzerland, and is part of a movement to attract assets tied to investable hedge fund indexes. The ONE Financial notes will be available to Canadian investors through Sept. 30. The first series, launched in November 2003, collected about C$15 million (US$11 million) in assets, said Jeffrey O’Brien, president and chief executive of ONE Financial. Three of ONE Financial’s eight structured offerings are connected to hedge funds, and the firm plans to launch a whole family of non-structured hedge fund offerings later this year, Mr. O’Brien said. The firm’s first hedge fund offering, ONE Financial Guaranteed Absolute Return Notes, has about C$30 million in assets and the firm manages about C$250 million in total.