Marret High Yield Strategies Fund has filed a preliminary prospectus for with the securities regulatory authorities of all of the Canadian provinces for an offering of units, Marret Asset Management Inc. said Monday.

The fund is offering Class A units only at a price of $10 per unit.

Recent market events highlight the need for investment strategies focused on preserving capital in market downturns and participating fully in rising markets, Marret says.

The fund will obtain exposure to a portfolio focused primarily on high yield debt securities. The portfolio will be held by Marret HYS Trust, and will be actively managed by Marret Asset Management using specialized high yield debt strategies designed to maximize risk-adjusted returns and preserve capital in each phase of the credit cycle.

The fund will seek to maximize total returns for unitholders consisting of both tax-advantaged distributions and capital appreciation, while reducing risk, and to provide unitholders with attractive monthly tax-advantaged cash distributions, initially targeted to be 8% per year on the original issue price of $10 per Unit.

Marret Asset Management Inc. is an employee-owned firm based in Toronto, specialize exclusively in fixed income and, particularly, in high yield debt strategies.

The firm advises on over $2 billion of high yield corporate debt assets.

Barry Allan, the president and chief investment officer, founded Marret in 2000, following a career at Altamira, Nesbitt Thomson and a Canadian chartered bank. Allan has over 25 years of experience in credit and fixed income markets.

The syndicate of agents for the offering is being co-led by RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and GMP Securities L.P. and includes CIBC World Markets Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., Dundee Securities Corp., Canaccord Capital Corp., Raymond James Ltd., Blackmont Capital Inc., Desjardins Securities Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., Manulife Securities Incorporated, Wellington West Capital Markets Inc. and Research Capital Corp.

IE