Products March 8, 2007
Two New Funds From John Hancock
John Hancock Funds has announced the launch of two new funds available to investors through financial advisers.
Reported by Nevin E. Adams
The two funds are the John Hancock Global Shareholder Yield Fund, and the John Hancock Classic Value Mega Cap Fund. The former will be provided with portfolio management services by Epoch Investment Partners, Inc., a New York-based institutional asset manager, through an exclusive sub-advisory agreement. The primary objective of the fund is to seek to provide a high level of income with capital appreciation as a secondary objective.
The John Hancock Classic Value Mega Cap Fund is sub-advised by Pzena Investment Management LLC, a New York-based institutional asset manager. Pzena presently manages approximately $9.3 billion in Classic Value portfolios as sub-adviser to the John Hancock Classic Value Fund and Classic Value Fund II, and to the John Hancock International Classic Value Fund. Pzena Investment Management, founded in 1995, currently manages more than $27.3 billion in assets for institutional clients.
Fund Objectives
According to a press release, the Global Shareholder Yield Fund will seek to achieve its objective by investing in a diversified portfolio of companies located throughout the world, including the United States, that have a history of attractive dividend yields and positive growth in free cash flow. The philosophy behind the fund is predicated on the belief that the price-earnings expansion that drove the stock market in the 1980s and 1990s when interest rates were trending lower will not play as significant a role in the future. The fund’s managers believe that a focus on investing in companies that look to maximize “Shareholder Yield,” broadly defined as dividend payouts, stock buy-backs and debt reduction, may deliver performance that is superior to that of broad-based equity markets.
The John Hancock Classic Value Mega Cap Fund seeks long-term growth of capital by typically investing most of its assets in domestic equity securities. Pzena chooses these securities from a universe of the largest 250 publicly traded U.S. companies with market capitalizations greater than $15 billion, according to a press release.
“Valuations at the larger end of the market are very attractive, making this an opportune time to launch the portfolio,” said Andrew Arnott, Vice President and head of product management and development for John Hancock Funds. “The new Classic Value Mega Cap Fund is closest in approach to the original Classic Value, which is closed to new investors, and so Classic Value Mega Cap is now the only way retail clients can access Pzena’s institutional asset management expertise in a concentrated domestic portfolio.”