Toronto, February 17, 2004:World Financial Split Corp. announced today that it has completed its initial public offering of 18,000,000 Preferred shares and 18,000,000 Class A shares at a price of $10.00 per Preferred share and $15.00 per Class A share for gross proceeds of $450,000,000.The offering was led by RBC Capital Markets with a syndicate of agents that included CIBC World Markets Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., TD Securities Inc., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., National Bank Financial Inc., Canaccord Capital Corporation, Desjardins Securities Inc., First Associates Investments Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and Raymond James Ltd. The Corporation has granted to the Agents an option exercisable for a period of 30 days from the closing of the offering to purchase up to 900,000 additional Preferred Shares and 900,000 Class A shares on the same terms and conditions as set forth above.

World Financial will invest the net proceeds from the offering in a portfolio which will include common equity securities selected from the ten largest financial services companies by market capitalization in each of Canada, the United States and the Rest of the World (the “Portfolio Universe”).

In addition, the issuers of securities in the Portfolio, other than Canadian issuers, must have a minimum credit rating of “A” from Standard & Poor’s Rating Services or a comparable rating from an equivalent rating agency.

In addition, up to 20% of the Net Asset Value of World Financial may be invested in common equity securities of financial services companies not included in the Portfolio Universe as long as such companies have a market capitalization at the time of investment of at least US$10 billion and for non-Canadian issuers, a minimum credit rating of “A” from S&P or a comparable rating from an equivalent rating agency.

World Financial’s investment portfolio is managed by its investment manager, Mulvihill Capital Management Inc. The Fund's Preferred shares and Class A shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols WFS.PR.A and WFS.