Maxam Opportunities Fund Limited Partnership Will Vote Against Birch Hill Equity Partners' Plan of Arrangement to Acquire All of the Common Shares of HOMEQ Corporation

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 20, 2012) - Maxam Opportunities Fund Limited Partnership and Maxam Opportunities Fund (International) Limited Partnership (together, the "Maxam Funds") announce that they will vote against the arrangement agreement under which certain current management and directors will roll their equity and Birch Hill Equity Partners ("Birch Hill") will indirectly acquire all of the outstanding common shares (the "Shares") of HOMEQ Corporation ("HOMEQ") for cash at a price of $9.50 per Share.

In Maxam's view, the offer is opportunistic and does not adequately reflect the underlying value of HOMEQ. HOMEQ has spent much of the last two years evolving its organization into a new business model and 2012 is the year when we expect these efforts to finally materialize into significant growth in earnings. Birch Hill has made an opportunistic bid to acquire the firm before such growth is realized. HOMEQ's bank license is of significant value, as is the fact that the firm effectively operates as a monopoly in a growing market. Other financial firms have recently secured capital to pursue growth plans in lucrative niches at more attractive valuations than that being offered by Birch Hill. Current shareholders of HOMEQ are being deprived of this growth opportunity while existing management and directors are participating in HOMEQ's growth going forward alongside Birch Hill.

The Maxam Funds beneficially own and control 1,744,165 common shares of HOMEQ, representing approximately 12.2% of HOMEQ's issued and outstanding common shares.

The Maxam Funds are managed by their general partners, Maxam Opportunities GP Ltd. and Maxam Opportunities (International) GP Ltd. (together, the "Maxam General Partners"), respectively. The Maxam General Partners are majority owned by Maxam Capital Corp. ("Maxam Capital"). Maxam Capital also owns 70% of Maxam Capital Management Ltd., which manages the Maxam Diversified Strategies Fund which owns an aggregate of 25,000 common shares of HOMEQ.

The common shares of HOMEQ are listed on the TSX and trade under the symbol "HEQ".

MAXAM OPPORTUNITIES FUND LIMITED PARTNERSHIP by its general partner MAXAM OPPORTUNITIES GP LTD.