AGF Funds Inc. today introduced three new quantitative funds into its retail line-up that will be managed by Highstreet Asset Management Inc., a an institutional and private client money manager and subsidiary of AGF Management Ltd.

The new funds managed by London, Ont.-based Highstreet are AGF Canadian All Cap Equity Fund, the AGF Global High Income Fund and the AGF Global Balanced High Income Fund.

“The launch of these funds presents an exciting opportunity for retail investors who have expressed ongoing interest in Highstreet’s quantitative style of investing,” says AGF Funds Inc. President Randy Ambrosie. “We are thrilled to provide our clients with a choice of products that offer the consistent, transparent and impartial style of investing that Highstreet has used successfully in managing funds for some of its biggest Canadian and international institutional clients.”

“Highstreet takes a quantitative approach to money management and believes that stock market success can be achieved by consistently applying a disciplined, fact-based approach to investing,” says Rob Jackson, senior vp, investments at Highstreet.

“To satisfy the investment objectives of each fund, we develop a customized formula based on characteristics such as growth, earnings and asset quality, depending on the mandate. We then select only those stocks with the best grades,” Jackson adds.

With more than 220 years of combined experience, the Highstreet team manages portfolios for Canadian pension plans and financial institutions, universities, foundations and high net worth families.

The management team at Highstreet has been successful in growing assets under management to more than $5 billion.

AGF Canadian All Cap Equity Fund will focus on providing an above-average rate of return by investing in a small number of Canadian stocks targeted to have strong earnings growth. The fund will invest in equities from all three capitalization categories — small-, medium- and large-cap.

AGF Global High Income Fund will seek to provide a tax-efficient stream of monthly distributions and to preserve and enhance the fund’s net asset value by investing in a portfolio of securities with exposure to dividend-yielding securities from around the world. With a focus on dividend-paying companies, the fund will have greater exposure to larger capitalized companies and select industry groups and geographic regions.

AGF Global Balanced High Income Fund will invest in both dividend-yielding securities and fixed-income securities, and will maintain a target asset allocation of approximately 60% in dividend-yielding securities from around the world and 40% in high-quality fixed-income securities.