Fraser Mackenzie to Resign as IIROC Member

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 29, 2013) - Fraser Mackenzie Holdings Inc. ("FMHI") wishes to announce that at a shareholders' meeting held today, the shareholders of FMHI, the parent company of Fraser Mackenzie Limited ("FML"), a registered investment dealer and member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada ("IIROC"), voted in favour of proceeding with a voluntary winding-up of the company. FMHI and FML have ceased all operations other than in connection with the winding-up and Mark Polubiec has been appointed liquidator of FMHI and FML. Accordingly, FML has notified IIROC of its intention to resign as a member thereof.

FML was founded in 2004 and in its nine-year history has six-folded its capital base, published research on 154 Canadian companies, employed as many as 80 people and financed over 120 companies in the mining, oil & gas, biotechnology, technology, alternative energy and industrial sectors raising over $7 billion.

Our assessment of the business climate for small independent investment dealers has led the owners to conclude that deploying our capital in the continuance of our regulated businesses can no longer generate an acceptable rate of return. Revenue prospects have changed dramatically. For example, institutional interest in early stage mining and oil & gas companies, sectors to which we have been heavily committed, has considerably diminished as has the associated trading in the equities of these early stage resource companies. Furthermore, the regulatory cost burden is increasing at a time that industry-wide revenues are declining. On balance, it makes sense for our shareholders to re-deploy our capital elsewhere while we still have it instead of depleting it in anticipation of an unpredictable market turnaround.

It is anticipated that the liquidator of FML and FMHI will, in the course of winding up the companies, sell surplus assets, which may include the right to the use of the name "Fraser Mackenzie" in the securities industry. "Fraser Mackenzie" is already associated with Fraser Mackenzie Merchant Capital ("FMMC") which currently works with private companies assisting them with capital raising and other advisory services and is in the process of establishing a mezzanine and a private equity fund to meet the wider financing needs of private companies.

We wish to take this opportunity to thank our staff for their invaluable contributions and our clients for their unwavering support.