Brand Leaders Income Fund Closes its $30 million Initial Public Offering

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - July 19, 2011) - Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. (TSX:HBL.UN) (the "Manager") is pleased to announce that Brand Leaders Income Fund (the "Fund") has completed today its initial public offering (the "Offering") of 2,500,000 Units at a price of $12.00 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $30,000,000. The Fund has granted the Agents an over-allotment option (the "Over-Allotment Option") exercisable in whole or in part for a period of 30 days following today's closing of the Offering.

The Units are now trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HBL.UN.

The Fund's investment objectives are to provide Unitholders with: (i) monthly cash distributions; (ii) the opportunity for capital appreciation; and (iii) lower overall volatility of Portfolio returns than would otherwise be experienced by owning Equity Securities of the Brand Leaders directly.

The Fund will invest in an equally-weighted portfolio of Equity Securities of 15 Brand Leaders from the Brand Leaders Investable Universe that have a market capitalization of at least US$10 billion at the time of investment and meet certain investment characteristics.

In order to seek to generate additional returns, Highstreet Asset Management Inc. (the "Investment Manager" or "Highstreet") will sell "at-the-money" call options each month on Equity Securities held in the Portfolio.

The Fund's initial distribution target is $0.065 per Unit per month ($0.78 per annum representing an annual cash distribution of 6.5% based on the $12.00 per Unit issue price).

Highstreet will be responsible for the execution of the Fund's overall investment strategy, including managing the composition of the Portfolio.

The syndicate of agents is being co-led by BMO Capital Markets and CIBC, and includes RBC Capital Markets, Scotia Capital Inc., National Bank Financial Inc., TD Securities Inc., Canaccord Genuity Corp., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., Dundee Securities Ltd., GMP Securities L.P., Raymond James Ltd., Wellington West Capital Markets Inc., Desjardins Securities Inc., Industrial Alliance Securities Inc. and Macquarie Private Wealth Inc. (collectively, the "Agents").

Counsel on behalf of the Fund and the Manager is Borden Ladner Gervais LLP and counsel on behalf of the Agents is Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.

Certain statements included in this news release constitute forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, those identified by the expressions "expect", "intend", "will" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Fund, the Manager and/or the Investment Manager. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect the Fund's, the Manager's and/or Investment Manager's current expectations regarding future results or events. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. Although the Fund, the Manager and/or the Investment Manager believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and, accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. The Fund, the Manager and/or the Investment Manager undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statement or information whether as a result of new information, future events or other such factors which affect this information, except as required by law.

All capitalized terms noted herein but not defined are as defined in the Fund's prospectus dated June 29, 2011.