Brompton Completes Merger of Certain Funds: Financial News

Press Release

Source: Brompton VIP Income Fund and Brompton Stable Income Fund and Brompton Equal Weight Income Fund and Business Trust Equal Weight Income Fund and BG Top 100 Equal Weighted Income Fund and Brompton Tracker Fund and BG Income + Growth Split Trust

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(MARKET WIRE)--Jul 4, 2008 -- Brompton Funds is pleased to announce the completion of the merger of Brompton Stable Income Fund (Toronto:BSR-UN.TO - News) ("BSR"), Brompton Equal Weight Income Fund (Toronto:EWI-UN.TO - News) ("EWI"), Business Trust Equal Weight Income Fund (Toronto:BWI-UN.TO - News) ("BWI"), BG Top 100 Equal Weighted Income Fund (Toronto:BTH-UN.TO - News) ("BTH"), Brompton Tracker Fund (Toronto:BTF-UN.TO - News) ("BTF") and BG Income + Growth Split Trust (Toronto:BDS-UN.TO - News)(Toronto:BDS-PA.TO - News) ("BDS") into Brompton VIP Income Fund (Toronto:VIP-UN.TO - News) ("VIP") effective July 4, 2008. This merger was approved at a special meeting of securityholders held on June 9, 2008 as part of the reorganization of these funds to address the expected tax on income trusts in 2011.

The merger was implemented on a tax-deferred rollover basis for unitholders at an exchange ratio calculated as the net asset value ("NAV") per unit of each merging fund divided by the NAV per unit of VIP, the continuing fund, each determined as at the close of business on July 3, 2008. The table below provides the respective exchange ratios and NAV per unit for each of the Funds at such time.

 

                        Exchange Ratio     NAV Per Unit
                 VIP.UN       1.000000         $13.5846
                 BSR.UN       0.965166         $13.1114
                 EWI.UN       0.858310         $11.6598
                 BWI.UN       0.691945         $ 9.3998
                 BTH.UN       0.736385         $10.0035
                 BTF.UN       0.666423         $ 9.0531
                 BDS.UN       1.013000         $13.7612

Unitholders of the funds are not required to take any action in order to be recognized as a unitholder of VIP. Former unitholders of the merging funds who wish to participate in the distribution reinvestment plan ("DRIP") can enrol in the DRIP program by contacting their Investment Advisor and requesting that they be enrolled in the Brompton VIP Income Fund Distribution Reinvestment Plan.

Preferred securities of BDS will be automatically exchanged for 6.0% preferred securities of VIP (ticker symbol VIP.PR.A) and preferred securityholders will be considered to have disposed of their BDS preferred securities for proceeds equal to $10.00 per preferred security upon the exchange.

Prior to the opening of trading on July 7, 2008, VIP will have approximately 58.4 million units outstanding and a market capitalization of approximately $780 million. Units of VIP issued pursuant to the merger will trade under the symbol VIP.UN beginning on July 7, 2008. As part of the reorganization, the monthly distribution rate for unitholders of record of VIP on July 31, 2008 will be increased to $0.10 per unit, which represents an 11% increase over the distribution rate paid prior to the fund reorganization.

For additional information regarding the reorganization, please visit our website at www.bromptongroup.com.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investment funds. Please read the funds publicly filed documents which are available from SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Investment funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.