TORONTO, March 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Central Fund of Canada Limited ("Central Fund") of Calgary, Alberta is pleased to announce that it has filed a preliminary base shelf prospectus (the "Prospectus") with the securities commissions in each of the provinces and territories of Canada, except Quebec, and a registration statement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. This registration will allow Central Fund to offer and issue Class A non-voting, fully participating shares of Central Fund (the "Class A Shares") by way of one or more Prospectus Supplements at any time during the 25-month period that the Prospectus remains in place. Central Fund does not presently foresee authorizing an immediate share issue. The purpose of the filing of the Prospectus is to enable greater efficiency for share offerings in the future when conditions for issues of shares may be considered as favorable for existing shareholders and new subscribers in due course.
Under the Prospectus, the Class A Shares may be issued from time to time at the discretion of Central Fund, with an aggregate offering amount not to exceed US$750,000,000. Central Fund will only proceed with any such offering if it is non-dilutive to the net asset value of the Class A shares owned by the existing shareholders of Central Fund. Substantially all of the net proceeds of any such offering will be used to purchase gold and silver bullion, in keeping with the policies established by the board of directors of Central Fund. Any additional capital raised by any such offering is expected to reduce the operating expense ratio in favour of the shareholders of Central Fund.
A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. The securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.
Central Fund of Canada Limited (est. 1961) is an exchange tradeable refined gold and silver bullion holding company. Class A Shares are qualified for inclusion in many North American regulated accounts. Bullion holdings are stored on an unencumbered, allocated, segregated and insured basis in the treasury vaults of a major Canadian bank and are audited semi-annually in the presence of Central Fund's auditors and bank representatives. Class A shares are quoted on the AMEX, symbol CEF and the TSX, symbols CEF.A (Cdn. $) and CEF.U (U.S. $).
Information regarding Central Fund is available at http://www.centralfund.com/.
