TORONTO (HedgeWorld.com) – Norshield Financial Group is offering finance students at University of Toronto and University of Western Ontario scholarships as a way to contribute to the development ofthe alternative investment field in Canada.
The hedge fund of funds firm announced that in the 2003 through 2004 academic year, it would offer C$5,000 (US$2,207) a year to third and fourth year students majoring in finance. The program also includes: HEC Montreal, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, McGill University and the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University.
The scholarships will be based on academic excellence and will be awarded to students who have demonstrated a strong interest in finance, especially alternative investments.
“We believe that the social and financial investment is vital to the continued evolution of our society as well as to the success of tomorrow’s generation of leaders,” John Xanthoudakis, chairman of Norshield Financial Group, said in a statement. He added that Norshield is committed to establishing similar scholarships at major universities in other provinces in Canada.
The C$700 million (US$515 million) firm is a decade-old company that manages an offshore multi-strategy, multi-manager hedge fund, Univest Ltd. Norshield traditionally has offered both its funds to institutional investors and has allowed its funds to be offered by financial institutions. The most recent such deal was last month, when Canadian insurance company National Life offered a capital guaranteed fund based off of the returns of the Univest fund of funds.
Norshield has expanded to offer alternative investments on the retail side. The firm selected between 300 and 400 high-net-worth brokers and financial planners to distribute the firm’s hedge fund offerings in Canada. The Canadian hedge fund of funds also signed an agreement to use RiskMetrics technology earlier this year.
