Abria XL Trust a First for Canada

Date: Monday, August 8, 2005
Author: CNW Group

Abria Alternative Investments, Canada's leader in
alternative investment strategies, has created a new fund designed to meet
individual investors' expectations for solid returns while keeping risk lower
than that associated with the equities market. For the first time in Canada,
the Abria XL Trust gives individual investors the chance to participate in a
widely available, controlled leverage, expertly managed alternative product
with an established five year track record.
    The Abria XL Trust is an exciting opportunity for the individual Canadian
investor, according to Henry Kneis, Abria's CEO and Chief Investment Officer.
The fund is an enhanced version of the award-winning Abria Diversified
Arbitrage Trust, ranked the number one Risk-Adjusted Alternative Strategy Fund
in Canada.
    The new fund has all the proven benefits of the flagship Trust. Its
market neutral investment strategy, maintaining low correlation to equity and
bond markets, keeps volatility low. The fund's tax structure is uniquely
beneficial, with no annual distribution for tax purposes, and at disposition,
returns are treated as a capital gain, letting investors keep more of what
they make. Investors also benefit from having access to Abria's expert
investment management team, the most experienced in Canada.
    "We've introduced leverage to the fund," explains Mr. Kneis, "in order to
provide equity-like returns in the 7-11% range, while maintaining a level of
risk consistent with that of long-term bonds or roughly one-half that of
equities. With most analysts and forecasters predicting very modest returns
from the equities markets over the next ten years, it makes a lot of sense for
investors to have an alternative strategy available to them. I'm moving my
money to the XL Trust."
    Mr. Kneis, whose track record dates to 1987, has had positive returns for
every low volatility portfolio he has traded, managed or supervised in every
year of its existence. Even when global capital markets were down - October
1987, early 1994, August to October 1998, September 2001 - his portfolios have
had positive returns.

    Individual investors can enjoy the same benefits as institutions
    The trend among institutions is clearly to alternative, or absolute
return, investing strategies, with a lesser reliance on equities. Davee Gunn,
Executive VP Business Development and a principal at Abria, points to the
Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board as an example. That plan, with $84.3
billion in assets at the end of 2004, has allocated a very considerable 13.3%
of its holdings to absolute return strategies. The allocation for 2004
increased by nearly 5% over the previous year.
    Many other pension plans - OMERS, CPP, the Yale University Endowment -
have also been increasing their allocations to alternative strategies. The
Yale Endowment, rated in the top 1% of university endowments worldwide, has
been up 16.1% per annum since 1984 under the guidance of alternative
investment pioneer David Swenson.
    The individual investor, however, does not have access to a high-
performance, highly managed plan like the Yale Endowment. But Ms. Gunn
emphasizes that individual investors can derive the same benefits of
diversification and low exposure to equities and bond markets by investing in
an alternative investment strategy such as the Abria XL Trust, which gives
investors all the benefits of an expert management team with a proven track
record over more than five years.
    Ultimately it is the quality of the management team that determines how
well any investment strategy performs, and the Abria team has proven itself
consistently. For the last two years, Paterson & Associates of Toronto have
ranked the flagship Abria Diversified Arbitrage Trust the number one risk-
adjusted Alternative Strategy Fund in Canada. The Abria Diversified Arbitrage
Trust also received the inaugural 2004 Canadian Investment Award for the "Best
Fund of Hedge Funds". In June 2003, MAR/Hedge in New York ranked the companion
Abria Diversified Arbitrage Fund the number one Fund of Hedge Funds globally
for risk-adjusted returns.

For further information: Davee Gunn, Executive Vice President, Abria 
Alternative Investments Inc., (416) 367-4777