AGF Management Ltd. today reported weaker profit for the third quarter ended August 31.

Consolidated net income from continuing operations for the three months ended August 31, 2005, was $20.8 million or $0.23 per share diluted compared with $26.6 million or $0.29 per share diluted for the same period last year.

During the quarter, AGF announced the sale of 100% of Unisen Holdings Inc., a third-party administrative service provider, to Citifinancial Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Citigroup, for US$97.5 million in an all cash deal. The sale is expected to close before the end of the current fiscal year. The results of Unisen have been reported as discontinued operations.

The loss from discontinued operations was $464,000 compared with a profit of $963,000 a year ago.

In the third quarter of fiscal 2005, consolidated revenue from continuing operations rose to $153.0 million compared with $144.9 million in the third quarter of the prior year.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from continuing operations were $65.2 million compared with $71.6 million for the quarter ended August 31, 2004.

During the three months ended August 31, 2004, cash flow from operations and consolidated net income benefited by $3.6 million ($0.04 per share diluted) due to a lower effective income tax rate resulting from the acquisition of tax-related benefits.

AGF Trust Company operations continued to grow significantly. Mortgage loan assets grew 80.8% and consumer loans increased by 84.6% compared with August 31, 2004.

Total assets under management increased 7.2%, rising to $33.3 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2005 from $31.1 billion at the end of the same quarter in 2004.

AGF says a growing portion of revenues are now being earned from institutional and private investment management mandates. Since the third quarter of 2004, assets in this business have grown organically by 37.1% to $11.1 billion, and now represent 33.4% of total assets under management.

“AGF is executing on a plan to focus on our core investment management business and introduce new products that respond to the needs of advisors and their clients,” said Blake Goldring, president and CEO, AGF, in a release. “We also continue to generate healthy cash flow and provide value to shareholders through significant share repurchases and the sale of Unisen to Citigroup.”

During the quarter, AGF repurchased one million AGF Class B shares at an average price of $17.39 per share, which brings to 2.2 million the number of shares bought back by AGF during the 2005 fiscal year.

AGF Class Bshares were up 9¢, or 0.45%, at $20.04 in late afternoon trading.