TORONTO, Dec. 5, 2012 /CNW/ - FT Portfolios Canada Co. ("First Trust"), the manager of TD Canadian Quantitative Research Portfolio (the "Fund"), today announced changes to the Fund's investment strategy and a proposed meeting of unitholders to approve a merger of the Fund with another First Trust managed fund - the First Trust Canadian Capital Strength Portfolio.

The change in investment strategy is the result of a mutual decision by TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. ("TDW") and First Trust to terminate the sub-advisory relationship relating to the Fund.  As a result, TDW will no longer act as sub-advisor to the Fund and the Fund will no longer invest in securities included in a quantitative model portfolio created and disseminated by TD Securities Inc. in order to meet its investment objective.

The resignation by TDW and the corresponding change of investment strategy is expected to become effective on January 11, 2013 (the "Effective Date"). Concurrent with these changes, the Fund's name will also be changed to "First Trust Canadian Quantitative Equity Portfolio".

While the Fund's investment objective will remain the same, as of the Effective Date, First Trust Advisors L.P. ("FTA"), the Fund's portfolio advisor, will implement a proprietary quantitative investment strategy in order to replace the current strategy utilized by TDW.  The replacement strategy will follow FTA's Capital Strength Philosophy.  The Capital Strength Philosophy utilizes a multi-step, bottom-up, quantitative selection process to identify a universe of investible securities, and fundamental analysis to make final portfolio selections. The selection process is designed to identify issuers that have certain objective and easily determinable attributes that, in FTA's opinion, give them a strong capital position.

First Trust intends to hold a meeting of unitholders on or about February 20, 2013 to seek approval to merge the Fund with First Trust Canadian Capital Strength Portfolio, a fund that also follows the same Capital Strength Philosophy.

The merger is subject to the approval of unitholders of the Fund by way of an affirmative vote of not less than 50% of the votes cast at a meeting. A notice of meeting and management information circular which fully describes the proposed merger will be mailed to unitholders prior to the meeting.  First Trust will also be seeking regulatory approval for the merger.  If approved, it is expected the merger will be effective on or about February 21, 2013.  Investors will have the right to redeem securities of the Fund up to the close of business on the effective date of the merger.

The Independent Review Committee for the Fund will review the potential conflict of interest matters related to the proposed merger in order to provide its recommendation as to whether the proposed merger, if implemented, would achieve a fair and reasonable result for the Fund.

SOURCE FT Portfolios Canada Co.