CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nuveen Investments, a leading global provider of investment services to institutions as well as high-net-worth and affluent investors, today announced the availability of the Nuveen Symphony Floating Rate Income Fund (NFRAX) to retail investors. Managed by Nuveen affiliate, Symphony Asset Management, the new fund leverages Symphony’s catalyst-driven credit analysis to opportunistically invest in floating rate loans and other floating rate debt securities in an effort to provide a high level of current income as well as capital appreciation. The new fund is now available through advisors at leading broker-dealers, banks, insurance companies, financial planning and investment consulting firms.
In addition to investing in floating rate loans and other floating rate debt securities, the new fund may also invest its assets in other securities, including fixed-rate, high-yield corporate bonds and convertible securities, as well as in investment-grade debt securities. Further, the fund may also use derivatives, including options, futures contracts, swap agreements, and interest rate derivatives to manage risk, convert fixed-rate securities to floating rate securities and/or to manage the duration of securities in the portfolio.
“With short-term interest rates near historic lows, we believe floating rate loans can provide a timely investment alternative to traditional long-dated fixed-income investments, and offer the opportunity for attractive income and total return potential throughout the interest rate cycle,” said Gunther Stein, Symphony Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment Officer and co-portfolio manager of the fund. Scott Caraher joins Gunther Stein as co-portfolio manager of the fund.
Gunther Stein is responsible for overseeing Symphony’s fixed-income and equity investments. Stein has more than 25 years of investment and research experience and is actively involved with the management of the firm’s fixed-income products. Prior to joining Symphony in 1999, Stein spent six years at Wells Fargo where he was most recently a high-yield portfolio manager after being in the firm’s Loan Syndications & Leveraged Finance Group. Before joining Wells Fargo, he was a Euro-currency deposit trader at First Interstate Bank. He also worked for Standard Chartered Bank in Mexico City and Citibank Investment Bank in London. He received an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
As Co-Portfolio Manager for the fund, Scott Caraher is a member of the Symphony fixed-income team and his responsibilities include portfolio management and trading for Symphony’s bank loan strategies as well as credit and equity research for its fixed-income strategies. Prior to joining Symphony in 2002, Caraher was an Investment Banking Analyst in the industrial group at Deutsche Banc Alex Brown in New York. He received a BS in finance from Georgetown University.
Based in San Francisco, California, Symphony Asset Management’s investment platform provides clients access to senior bank loans, high yield bonds, convertible bonds and equities through long-only strategies, structured products and hedge funds. Supported by institutional-quality risk control measures and extensive operational support, Symphony focuses on intellectually robust analysis of earnings quality, industry trends, and trading characteristics as it seeks to deliver consistent returns in a variety of market conditions.
Fund Risks to Consider
Mutual fund investing involves risk; principal loss is possible. Floating rate loans and other debt securities are subject to market risk and credit risk. Credit risk refers to an issuer's ability to make interest and principal payments when due. Credit risk and the risk of default are heightened due to the fund’s concentration in below investment-grade debt. The Fund is also subject to income risk, liquidity risk and interest rate risk. Foreign investments involve additional risks, including currency fluctuation, political and economic instability, lack of liquidity and differing legal and accounting standards. The risk of volatility is heightened due to the use of derivatives and complex or alternative investment strategies.
Nuveen’s Recognized Family of Mutual Funds
Nuveen Investments’ family of mutual funds offers a variety of institutional-caliber investment strategies managed by its high-quality boutique affiliates. Each mutual fund is designed to contribute to a well-constructed diversified portfolio. With more than $43 billion in over 100 mutual funds as of March 31, 2011, Nuveen Investments offers a broad range of fixed income, growth, value and global portfolios spanning a variety of objectives and investment styles which draw upon the distinct investment strengths of Nuveen’s six managers including:
- NWQ Investment Management—Value Equities
- Nuveen Asset Management—Taxable and Municipal Fixed Income Strategies as well as Equity and Specialty Strategies
- Santa Barbara Asset Management—Growth Equities
- Symphony Asset Management—Risk-Managed Equity and Credit Strategies
- Tradewinds Global Investors—Global Equities
- Winslow Capital Management—Large Cap Growth Equities
Earlier this year, Nuveen Funds were the recipient of 14 U.S. Lipper Fund Awards which adds to the recognition for Nuveen mutual funds’ strong performance through the recent challenging market cycles. In addition to the individual Lipper awards, Nuveen mutual funds were ranked the second best mutual fund family (out of 57 leading mutual fund families) by Barron’s 2011 annual survey based on performance data for the one-year period ending
December 31, 2010.* Further, Nuveen was listed third among 650 mutual fund families by Morningstar based on the number of funds with a 5-star overall Morningstar rating as of April 30, 2011. It is important to note that past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Nuveen funds are distributed by Nuveen Securities, LLC. To learn more about Nuveen’s family of mutual funds, visit http://www.nuveen.com/MutualFunds/Default.aspx.
* Lipper: In calculating the awards, Lipper considered all open-end funds registered for sale in the United States in qualifying classifications with at least 36 months of performance history as of the end of the calendar year. Awards were given to funds with a 3-, 5- and 10-year history as of the end of the evaluation year in equity, bond and mixed-asset Lipper U.S. Classifications with at least ten distinct portfolios. Both group and fund awards were calculated using Lipper’s Consistent Return score. A more detailed Fund Awards Methodology can be found at excellence.thomsonreuters.com/Lipper.
* Barron’s: Nuveen mutual funds were ranked the second best mutual fund family (out of 57 leading mutual fund families) in Barron’s 2011 annual survey based on performance data for the one-year period ending December 31, 2010. Nuveen also ranked #10 among 53 mutual fund families and #24 among 46 mutual fund families for the five-year and ten-year periods ending December 31, 2010, respectively. Barron's is published by Dow Jones and Company.
To qualify for the Barron’s/Lipper Fund Survey, a fund group must have at least three funds in Lipper’s general U.S. Stock category as well as one in world equity, which combines global and international funds and one mixed equity fund, which holds stock and bonds; two taxable bond funds, and one tax-exempt offering. Fund returns include reinvested dividends and capital gains and do not reflect sales charges.
Investors should consider the investment objectives and policies, risk considerations, charges and expenses of the fund carefully before investing. For a prospectus which contains this and other information relevant to an investment in the fund, please contact your securities representative or Nuveen Securities, LLC, 333 W. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60606. Investors should read the prospectus carefully before they invest or send money.
About Nuveen Investments
Nuveen Investments provides high quality investment services designed to help secure the long-term goals of institutions, high net worth and affluent investors as well as the consultants and financial advisors who serve them. Nuveen Investments markets a wide range of specialized investment solutions which provide investors access to capabilities of its high-quality boutique investment affiliates - NWQ, Nuveen Asset Management, Santa Barbara, Symphony, Tradewinds and Winslow Capital. In total, Nuveen Investments had $212 billion of assets under management as of April 30, 2011. For more information, please visit the Nuveen Investments website at www.nuveen.com.
Methodology used for Barron’s ranking: Only funds with at least one year of performance were included. Returns were calculated minus the effects of sales charges and 12b-1 fees. Lipper measured each fund’s return against all funds in its Lipper category. Rankings were asset weighted, so larger funds had a greater impact on a fund family’s overall ranking, and then weighted by category, with each category assigned a percentage: general U.S. equity, 40.52%; world equity, 14.32%; mixed equity, 16.46%; taxable bond, 24.52%; tax-exempt bond, 4.18%. That leads to a percentile ranking (100 being the highest; 1 lowest). Finally, the score is multiplied by the weighting of its general classification, as determined by the entire Lipper universe of funds. The fund shop with the highest score wins, both for every category and overall. The same process is repeated for the five- and 10-year rankings.