(April 18 – 15:30 ET) – Canadian First Financial Group Inc. is reporting record revenues for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2000.

The Kitchener, Ont. based financial services holding company achieved record revenues of $27.7 million in 2000 as compared to $8.4 million for the five months ended Dec. 31, 1999 and $13,062,767 for the 12 months ended July 31, 1999. The companies principal subsidiaries are Ross Dixon Financial Services, Hewmac Financial Group, EFI Financial Services, Canadian First Mortgage Services and Burgeonvest Securities.

Due to a change of the fiscal year-end in 1999 to December 31, the prior year comparative periods are the five months ended Dec. 31, 1999 and the 12 months ended July 31, 1999.

Income before income taxes and goodwill charges were a record $394,960 for year 2000 as compared to $223,378 and $119,968 for the periods ended Dec. 31, 1999 and July 31, 1999 respectively. CFFG had a net loss after goodwill and income taxes of $149,305 in 2000 as compared to a net loss of $76,256 for the five months ended December 31, 1999 and $5,634 for the twelve months ended July 31, 1999.

Basic loss per share after goodwill charges was 1.8¢ for year 2000 as compared to 0.9¢ for the five months ended Dec. 31, 1999 and 0.1¢ for the period ended July 31, 1999.

Don Hyslop, president and COO, commented in statement, “Acquisition expenses, increased goodwill charges and restructuring costs in the second half of 2000 resulted in a small net loss for the period. We are in a strong financial position going forward into a difficult market environment with $900,000 in cash and short-term investments as at Dec. 31, 2000.” He added, Our current strong cash position will permit us to continue to focus on consolidating our recent acquisitions”.