The Securities Commission has granted mutual funds that are not reporting issuers a 90-day extension for filing and delivering annual financial statements and a 60-day extension for interim financial statements under National Instrument 81-106 Investment Fund Continuous Disclosure (NI 81-106). This decision is based on the funds’ investment strategy, which involves primarily investing in Underlying Funds with different financial reporting deadlines.
Key points from the decision include:
– The mutual funds in question invest the majority of their assets in Underlying Funds, which have later financial reporting deadlines.
– The mutual funds require the financial statements from the Underlying Funds to complete their own financial statements.
– The extensions will allow the mutual funds to file and deliver their annual financial statements within 180 days of their financial year-end and their interim financial statements within 120 days of their interim period-end.
– The offering memorandum provided to securityholders must disclose the extended filing and delivery deadlines.
– The mutual funds must notify securityholders of their intention to rely on the granted relief.
– The relief is conditional on the mutual funds investing at least 25% of their assets in entities with financial reporting periods ending on December 31 and subject to certain reporting deadlines.
– The relief is also subject to the mutual funds not being reporting issuers and the Filer having the necessary registrations.
– The relief will terminate within one year of any amendment to NI 81-106 or other rule that affects the filing and delivery deadlines for mutual funds.
The decision is underpinned by sections 2.2, 2.4, 5.1(2), and 17.1 of NI 81-106, which set out the standard filing and delivery deadlines for financial statements and the conditions for exemptions. The relief is granted to ensure that the mutual funds can meet their financial reporting obligations while accounting for the timing of receiving financial information from the Underlying Funds they invest in.