NEW YORK, May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Royal Bank of Canada (RY: TSX, NYSE) today announced that it has filed a Preliminary Pricing Supplement dated May 11, 2009, which relates to its Direct Investment Notes, due July 9, 2010, linked to the EquityCompass Equity Risk Management Strategy (the "EquityCompass Equity Risk Management Notes"). RBC Capital Markets is the underwriter of the offering.
The EquityCompass Equity Risk Management Notes will be issued under Royal Bank of Canada's Senior Global Medium-Term Notes, Series C, and Program, and are linked to the performance of the EquityCompass Equity Risk Management Strategy (the "Strategy"). The Strategy seeks to offer exposure to U.S. large cap stocks, while reducing the downside risk of such an investment. The Strategy consists of a set of rules used to construct a theoretical portfolio of different combinations of (a) cash and/or (b) a long or short position in the S&P 500(R) Total Return Index (the "Index"). The Strategy uses a short position in the Index to reduce the risk associated with a decline in the Index. The EquityCompass Equity Risk Management Notes will not have a coupon. RBC expects to price the EquityCompass Equity Risk Management Notes on June 4, 2009.
"S&P 500(R)" Total Return Index and "S&P" are trademarks of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. and have been licensed for use by Royal Bank of Canada. The notes have not been passed on by S&P as to their legality or suitability. The notes are not issued, endorsed, sold, or promoted by S&P. S&P MAKES NO WARRANTIES AND BEARS NO LIABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE NOTES.
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, province or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state, province or other jurisdiction.
The Preliminary Pricing Supplement dated May 11, 2009, as well as the product prospectus supplement, the base prospectus and the Medium-Term Notes prospectus supplement which relate to it, are available at the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, http://www.sec.gov/. They are also available from RBC Capital Markets Corporation, Three World Financial Center, 200 Vesey Street, 8th floor, New York, New York 10281-8098, and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, a selling group member.
About RBC Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) and its subsidiaries operate under the master brand name RBC. We are Canada's largest bank as measured by assets and market capitalization, one of North America's leading diversified financial services companies and among the largest banks in the world, as measured by market capitalization. We provide personal and commercial banking, wealth management services, insurance, corporate and investment banking and transaction processing services on a global basis. We employ more than 80,000 full- and part-time employees who serve more than 18 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada, the U.S. and 52 other countries. For more information, please visit http://www.rbc.com/ or http://www.rbcusnotes.com/.
About EquityCompass Strategies EquityCompass Strategies is a wholly owned subsidiary and affiliated SEC registered investment adviser of Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) and provides Equity Investment Portfolios on a separate accounts basis under the Stifel Core Portfolios Program as well as investment strategies for customized Investment Products like Equity-Linked Notes, Open-end funds, Equity Certificates, UITs etc. Led by the CIO, Richard Cripps, EquityCompass has been publishing timely investment advice and financial market commentary as well as providing tools for stock selection and portfolio management for more than 10 years. The group currently has over 8000 U.S and international stocks under coverage and publishes seven style-specific model portfolios and six stock selection lists based on alternative strategies.
The EquityCompass investment process is a top-down approach in which a series of proprietary, but fully transparent quantitative models, all developed and refined at EquityCompass, systematically filter the market universe of over 3,000 U.S and 5,000 international stocks to provide buy, sell and hold ratings. It follows a disciplined investment process that has been refined over a decade of rigorous testing and by incorporating investor feedback and capital market insights it adopts. DATASOURCE: RBC CONTACT: Loretta Healy, The Hubbell Group, (781) 878-8882,
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