Hymas Investment Management Inc. today announce that Malachite Aggressive Preferred Fund is now available to accredited investors across Canada.

The preferred share fund has previously been restricted to investors in Ontario only.

The fund invests solely in preferred shares and preferred securities trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, restricting purchases to those issues rated Pfd-2(low) or higher by Dominion Bond Rating Service.

The fund is referred to as “aggressive” because the composition of the fund does not necessarily reflect the composition of its benchmark index: it may invest in preferred shares issued by split share corporations, for instance, and is not required to hold such classes of shares as floating rate issues, which are expected to underperform for the foreseeable future.

Since its inception in 2001, the has returned a cumulative total of 88.92% (assuming reinvestment of distributions) compared to the return on the benchmark index of 30.25%.

James Hymas, portfolio manager for the fund, has spent his entire career analyzing fixed income investments, seeking anomalies in yield curves and exploiting market inefficiencies. “The preferred share market is extremely inefficient”, he says. “There are many issues out there that priced so high that their expected total return to redemption is negative. And there are correspondingly cheap issues. Preferred shares are an ideal investment for Canadians with a taxable fixed-income portfolio – after accounting for the Dividend Tax Credit, yields far exceed that available for bonds and GICs.”

Hymas publishes a blog regarding the preferred share market at www.prefblog.com, devoted to news and analysis of the Canadian preferred share market.