Edgar Leung

AMI Partners is a value manager that employs qualitative and quantitative research to manage Canadian equity, US equity, foreign equity, fixed-income and balanced portfolios. In general, the firm tends to invest in the stocks of Canadian and US large-cap companies in the finance, energy minerals and non-energy minerals sectors. The firm manages portfolios of US equities and international equities using ETFs to replicate the market return. AMI's international assets are managed by JP Morgan Asset Management. The firm's Canadian equity investment process is based on bottom-up research. Their Canadian equity strategies include: Core, Growing Income and Small-Cap. AMI's core equity management style uses a bottom-up investment process that is characterized by low tracking error against the benchmark and focuses on buying undervalued companies with improving fundamentals. The firm uses proprietary software to assess the value of large-cap and mid-cap stocks using historical book value, projected return on equity and historical relative p/e ratio compared to the market. They determine the intrinsic value of a stock to define the true long-term price level. AMI considers a stock to be reasonably priced when it is trading below its intrinsic value. Additional qualitative research is then used to evaluate the company's strengths and future prospects. A model portfolio is established with broad diversification across industry sectors. Fundamental and intrinsic value analysis is used to identify companies for purchase. The firm purchases the stocks of companies: (1) whose stock price is below its intrinsic value, indicating attractive return potential (2) that show evidence of improving fundamentals and (3) that have effective management teams. The firm will sell a stock when: (1) the target price is met (2) a company trades above its intrinsic value (3) it no longer meets AMI's quality criteria or (4) the original investment rationale fails to persist. AMI emphasizes stock selection over industry rotation. Industry weights are generally influenced by stock selection, but are also carefully monitored to ensure broad diversification. Industry weights will be 6 percentage points of the benchmark weight and portfolios will have investments in at least 8 of the 10 industry sectors. The AMI Core Model Portfolio consists of 40 to 60 large-cap and mid-cap stocks plus units of the AMI Small Cap Pooled Fund. The firm follows clients' policy statements on benchmarks and maximum holdings for individual securities. If given full discretion, the maximum holding in any one security will be 15%. Individual holdings are maintained within +/- 3% of the benchmark weighting. AMI's growing income equity strategy uses a bottom-up approach to invest in Canadian companies growing dividend streams, stable growth in earnings, quality management, positive cash flows and strong balance sheets. AMI's small-cap investment strategy invests in Canadian companies which are expected to have strong growth in earnings or cash flow and are selling at reasonable valuations. Particular emphasis is placed on the quality of management. The portfolio is broadly diversified across industry groups. The firm uses an enhanced passive style to invest in US equities. AMI invests a portion of the US equity exposure in mid-cap and small-cap US equity ETFs while holding a core position in S&P 500 Index ETFs. Assets are generally allocated 40% to 100% in large-cap (S&P 500 Index ETFs), 0% to 50% in mid-cap (S&P 400 Index ETFs) and 0% to 50% in small-cap (S&P 600 Index ETFs). Their benchmark for allocation is 50% large-cap, 25% mid-cap and 25% small-cap. AMI's fixed-income strategy follows a broad based approach that seeks consistent returns above the benchmark. They employ multiple strategies including (1) setting duration levels (2) yield curve strategies (3) sector allocation and (4) credit analysis. Shifts are made over the forecast horizon to take advantage of opportunities that result from market volatility. Assets are allocated among federal government, provincial, municipal and corporate bonds. The firm's fixed-income products include: the Universe Portfolio and the Corporate Bond Portfolio. AMI's corporate bond fund invests in investment grade corporate bonds that are allocated among sectors and credits within the Canadian corporate bond market. They seek to outperform the DEX Corporate Bond Index by 30 basis points over the long-term. The fund invests in investment grade bonds with a minimum credit rating of BBB-. The fund generally holds 40 to 60 individual issues. AMI's balanced portfolios are broadly diversified across investments in fixed-income securities, Canadian, US and international equities and cash. The firm seeks to add value and reduce volatility by overweighting asset classes that are expected to outperform based on their forecasts.

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