Horizons ETFs Announces Unitholder Approval of Proposed Corporate Class Reorganization for Certain ETFs

TORONTO – November 12, 2019 – Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. (“Horizons ETFs”) announced today that at special meetings of the unitholders of the exchange traded funds listed in the table below (the “ETFs”), held on November 12, 2019, unitholders of the ETFs approved all matters relating to the merger of each ETF (the “Mergers”), currently structured as a trust, into a corresponding class of shares of a new multi-class corporate fund structure to be managed by Horizons ETFs, all as further described in the Management Information Circular dated October 4, 2019, previously mailed to unitholders.

Other than BetaPro Gold Bullion -2x Daily Bear ETF (“HBD”), whose meeting has been adjourned until Wednesday, November 13, 2019, all of the exchange traded funds set out in Horizons ETFs’ press release dated August 23, 2019, have received unitholder approval for reorganization into the corporate class structure. Horizons ETFs anticipates that it will provide an update on the unitholder vote for HBD on November 13, 2019.

Listed below are the ETFs that have received unitholder approval to merge into the multi-class corporate fund structure:

The necessary regulatory and Independent Review Committee approvals have also been received.

Accordingly, Horizons ETFs expects to proceed with the Mergers on November 27 and November 29, 2019, as indicated in the above table. The ETFs will continue to trade as normal up until the Mergers, and will continue trading on the trading day following the Mergers under the same tickers.

“We are excited to have completed this last stage of the approval process and thank our unitholders for their ongoing support throughout the corporate class reorganization,” said Steve Hawkins, President and CEO of Horizons ETFs. “With the completion of the reorganization expected before the end of the month, we are putting the proposed changes to the Income Tax Act behind us and moving forward to the next stage of innovation for our tax-efficient ETF suite, which also includes our BetaPro ETFs.”

It is important to note that these ETFs are not expected to carry forward any tax liability into the proposed multi-class corporate fund structure, and no historical or retroactive taxable implications to unitholders of these ETFs are expected.

The reorganization is not expected to be a taxable event for unitholders of the ETFs provided that, in the case of Canadian resident unitholders who hold units of the ETFs in taxable accounts, such unitholders make a joint election with the proposed multi-class corporate fund structure under Section 85 of the Income Tax Act (Canada) as part of the exchange from their existing trust units into shares of a class of the new corporate fund structure. Horizons ETFs is establishing a process to provide assistance to unitholders in taking the necessary steps to file the joint election, which will be free of charge. Additional information can be found here: https://horizonsetfs.com/section-85-election

About Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. (www.HorizonsETFs.com)
Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. is an innovative financial services company and offers one of the largest suites of exchange traded funds in Canada. The Horizons ETFs product family includes a broadly diversified range of solutions for investors of all experience levels to meet their investment objectives in a variety of market conditions. Horizons ETFs has approximately $10 billion of assets under management and 91 ETFs listed on major Canadian stock exchanges.

For investor inquiries:
Contact Horizons ETFs at 1-866-641-5739 (toll-free) or (416) 933-5745
[email protected]

For media inquiries:
Contact Jonathan McGuire
External Communications Manager
Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc.
(416) 640-2956
[email protected]