J.P. Morgan Incubator Strategies invests in Canadian hedge fund manager

Date: Thursday, October 7, 2004

Marret Asset Management Ltd., a high yield and specialty credit investment management firm based in Toronto, announces a significant capital investment in its offshore hedge fund by J.P. Morgan Incubator Strategies (JPMIS), a division of J.P. Morgan Partners. Marret launched Marret Fund Ltd. in August, 2004, following the success of Marret High Yield Hedge LP, a Canadian limited partnership launched in November 2002. In addition to the investment, J.P. Morgan will be a strategic partner to Marret Fund Ltd. on structuring, operating, reporting, and marketing the fund outside of Canada. Marret's hedge fund offerings focus on high yield corporate debt and capital structure arbitrage, with a unique emphasis on Canadian corporate debt issuers. The funds exploit valuation inconsistencies between various securities within an individual issuer's capital structure or between comparable securities issued by firms in the same industry sector. Marret's investment process involves intensive credit analysis and benchmarking of credits within industry sectors. The firm is employee-owned and has gathered the largest team of high yield professionals in Canada. Marret has seven credit professionals with extensive experience in the North American capital markets. The team is led by Barry Allan, the President and Chief Investment Officer, and Greg Foss, the Head Trader. Barry has 25 years of experience and founded Marret in 2000, following a career at Altamira, Nesbitt Thomson and the Bank of Montreal. Greg spent 10 years trading Canadian high yield at TD Securities and Midland Walwyn. Greg has been published in the Financial Analyst's Journal and The Journal of Commercial Bank Lending on pricing credit risk. Marret's other significant hedge fund partner is Arrow Hedge Partners Inc. Marret is the investment manager for the Arrow High Yield Fund, which follows the same strategy as Marret Fund and Marret High Yield Hedge and is offered to Canadian retail investors through brokers and investment advisors. Marret also has partnerships in traditional high yield corporate bond portfolio management with Dynamic Mutual Funds, a division of Goodman & Company Investment Counsel Ltd., Skylon Advisors Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CI Fund Management Inc., and Newport Partners Inc., a leading independent wealth management firm. Marret is the portfolio manager for the Dynamic Canadian High Yield Bond mutual funds and two TSX-listed closed-end Skylon funds. The J.P Morgan investment was made through J.P. Morgan Incubator Fund, a fund of funds established in February 2003 and managed by JPMIS, a division of JP Morgan Partners headed by CEO Simon Lack.