First Asset Funds Inc. announced today that First Asset/BlackRock North American Dividend Achievers Trust has filed the final prospectus with provincial the securities regulators for its offering of up to 10 million units.

The $100 million offering is scheduled to close on or about November 30. The subscription price per unit is $10, with a minimum initial investment of $1,000.

The Toronto Stock Exchange has conditionally approved the listing of the units (BDA.UN).

The trust will be actively managed by BlackRock Financial Management Inc. with the objective of providing investors with monthly cash distributions of 6% per year and to maximize total returns. The trust’s portfolio will consist primarily of common stocks selected from a universe of Canadian and U.S. issuers known as “Dividend Achievers” as compiled by Mergent, Inc., a leading provider of global business and financial information on publicly traded companies.

“Dividend Achievers” are those companies that have a long track record (10 years in the case of U.S. companies and five years for Canadian companies) of consecutively increasing their annual regular cash dividends. No leverage will be used in the management of the trust.

BlackRock is a wholly owned subsidiary of BlackRock Inc., one of the largest publicly traded investment management firms in the United States, with approximately US$428 billion of assets under management at Sept. 30, 2005.

The syndicate of agents for this offering, which is being led by RBC Capital Markets and CIBC World Markets Inc., includes National Bank Financial Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., TD Securities Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., Blackmont Capital Inc., Canaccord Capital Corp., Desjardins Securities Inc., Dundee Securities Corp., Raymond James Ltd., Research Capital Corp. and Wellington West Capital Inc.