(March 21 – 13:30 ET) – AIC Ltd. and CDP Financial Services, a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, have decided not to make a formal take-over bid for Mackenzie Financial Corp.

The annoucment came today from 1450473 Ontario Inc., a holding company controlled by Michael Lee-Chin, who also controls AIC Ltd.

1450473 Ontario Inc. (also know as Holdco) AIC and CDP also announced today that they have terminated their arrangements relating to such a potential bid.

According to a statement issued today, no decision has been made by AIC on behalf of its mutual funds and on its own behalf to tender or not to tender to the offer by Investors Group Inc. to purchase all shares of Mackenzie.

“The imposition of the $180 million break fee by the board of directors of Mackenzie made it very difficult for us to improve our bid, to the detriment of all Mackenzie shareholders, including the AIC Group of Funds,” said Michael Lee-Chin, chairman and chief investment officer of AIC. He said that the fee is not in the best interests of Mackenzie shareholders.

Holdco had arranged for CDP to be a substantial minority shareholder in Holdco. “CDP was an excellent partner and we look forward to working with their team again in the future” said Lee-Chin.

Three AIC funds currently own 24,457,280 shares of Mackenzie representing about 19% of the outstanding shares. These shares are not beneficially owned by AIC, but may be considered to be controlled by it at this time.