CN Pension Trust Fund Acquires More Units of Freehold Royalty Trust

Business Wire, Dec 17, 1998

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 1998--N(ME:CNR.) (TSE:CNR.) (NYSE:CNI) Canadian National Railway Company, administrator of the CN Pension Trust Fund (the "Fund"), announced today that the Fund acquired 533,000 units of Freehold Royalty Trust ("Freehold") between Nov. 13, 1998, and Dec. 17, 1998, through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Montreal Exchange.

The Fund now holds 6,496,000 units representing 24.5 per cent of the outstanding units of Freehold. The purchases were made for investment purposes.

Rife Resources Management Ltd. ("Rife"), a subsidiary of the Fund and the manager of Freehold, has, pursuant to a management agreement, acquired a total of 148,000 units of Freehold.

Rife has the right to receive, as a quarterly management fee, an additional 252,000 units over the next 39 months and holds options to acquire one million Freehold units at $10 per unit.

Canadian National Railway Company serves all of Canada and the U.S. Midwest, including the ports of Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax and the key cities of Toronto, Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo, with connections to all points in North America.