The Wells Fargo Global Dividend Opportunity Fund (NYSE: EOD), a
closed-end fund, announced today that the fund’s Board of Trustees
has approved the following changes to the fund:
- Changes to the fund’s principal investment strategy.
- Changes to subadvisory arrangement and portfolio management
personnel.
- A reduction in investment advisory fees payable by the fund to
Wells Fargo Funds Management, LLC (Funds Management), the fund’s
investment advisor.
All of the changes discussed below are effective on or about
October 15, 2019.
The fund’s primary investment objective will remain to seek a
high level of current income. The fund’s secondary objective will
remain long-term growth of capital. There will be no changes to
these investment objectives.
Changes to the investment strategy
The equity portion of the fund’s investment strategy no longer
expects to invest at least 65 percent of its total assets in
securities of issuers in the utilities, energy and communication
services sectors. Instead, the equity sleeve expects to invest
normally in approximately 60 to 80 securities, broadly diversified
among major economic sectors and regions. The targeted sector and
region weighting goal will be +/- 5 percent of weights in the MSCI
ACWI and according to Wells Capital Management’s proprietary region
classification. Fundamental research will be carried out
systematically using quantitative investment methodology that
dynamically ranks stocks based on insider/management signaling,
momentum/sentiment, relative value and short-term indicators. The
model will combine both universe and sector factors that display
positive predicted alpha. After more screening, further individual,
qualitative analysis will evaluate aspects of the companies, such
as management strength, industry positioning of products and
services and risk profile.
The equity sleeve will no longer allow for a focus on
convertible debt and will no longer allow for short sales on equity
securities. The fund will no longer seek to emphasize equity
securities that pay dividends qualifying for favorable tax
treatment. Finally, the equity sleeve’s investment parameters that
specified a specific percentage (or range) of assets to be invested
in foreign securities (including emerging markets) and a minimum
number of countries in which the sleeve intended to invest are
being eliminated.
Changes to subadvisory arrangement and portfolio management
personnel
Crow Point Partners, LLC, will no longer serve as a subadvisor
to the fund, and as a result, Timothy O’Brien, CFA, of Crow Point
Partners, will no longer be a portfolio manager for the fund. The
assets of the fund previously managed by Crow Point Partners will
be managed by Wells Capital Management Incorporated, the fund’s
other subadvisor.
In light of the increased responsibility to be assigned to Wells
Capital Management, Funds Management has agreed, and the Board has
approved, to increase the subadvisory fee paid by Funds Management
(not the fund) to Wells Capital Management from 0.20 percent of
average daily total assets per year to 0.40 percent of average
daily total assets per year. It is important to note that this
subadvisory fee is paid from Funds Management’s own assets and is
not paid by the fund, and the aggregate subadvisory fee paid by
Funds Management will remain unchanged at 0.40 percent.
The portfolio managers that will be responsible for managing the
assets of the equity sleeve will be Justin Carr, CFA, and Vince
Fioramonti, CFA. Their biographies are listed below.
Justin Carr is a senior portfolio manager for the Golden
Capital Equity team at Wells Fargo Asset Management. He is also a
member of the research team with the responsibility of building and
improving stock selection models, back-testing and refining
existing factors and writing production code. Prior to joining
Golden Capital, he was an analyst with the Global Strategic
Products team at Wells Capital Management. Justin earned a
bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of
Vermont and a master’s degree in mathematical finance from
Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He has earned the right to use the
Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation.
Vince Fioramonti is a senior portfolio manager for the
Golden Capital Equity team at Wells Fargo Asset Management. He
helps manage the team’s international and yield-oriented
strategies. Prior to joining Golden Capital, Vince served as a
partner at Alpha Equity Management, LLC, where he managed the
firm’s international equity strategies and was responsible for its
technology infrastructure. Earlier, Vince worked with ING and its
predecessor Aetna organizations as the lead portfolio manager for
the Aetna International Fund. Vince began his career in investment
management with Travelers Investment Management. He earned a
bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Dayton and a
master’s degree in business administration from the University of
Rochester. He has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial
Analyst® (CFA®) designation and is a member of CFA Society North
Carolina and CFA Institute.
In addition, Kandarp Acharya, CFA, FRM, and Christian Chan, CFA,
will no longer be portfolio managers for the fund. They will be
replaced by Greg McMurran and Megan Miller, CFA. Their biographies
are listed below.
Greg McMurran is chief investment officer and portfolio
manager for the Analytic Investors team at Wells Fargo Asset
Management. In this role, Greg focuses on day-to-day portfolio
management and research related to derivatives-based investment
strategies. Greg has an extensive background in managing
quantitative investment portfolios with his experience in
quantitative research, portfolio management and trading. He earned
a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California,
Irvine, and a master’s degree in economics from California State
University, Fullerton.
Megan Miller is a portfolio manager for the Analytic
Investors team at Wells Fargo Asset Management. She is responsible
for portfolio management and trading support for derivatives-based
investment strategies. Specifically, she researches new models and
ways to enhance existing models used in the investment process,
develops and maintains optimization inputs and volatility forecasts
and develops and maintains optimization frameworks used to create
client portfolios. She earned a bachelor’s degree in applied
mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a
master’s degree in business administration, with an emphasis in
finance from the University of California, Berkeley. Megan has
earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®)
designation.
Niklas Nordenfelt, CFA, and Philip Susser will continue in their
roles as portfolio managers for the other sleeve of the fund.
CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are trademarks owned by
CFA Institute.
Reduction in investment advisory fees
Funds Management is entitled
to receive a fee at an annual rate of 0.95 percent of the fund’s
average daily total assets. This investment advisory fee paid by
the fund to Funds Management will be reduced by 0.10 percent to
0.85 percent of the fund’s average daily total assets.
For more information on Wells Fargo’s closed-end funds, please
visit our website at wfam.com.
The fund is a closed-end fund that is no longer engaged in
initial public offerings, and shares are available only through
broker-dealers on the secondary market. Unlike an open-end
mutual fund, a closed-end fund offers a fixed number of shares for
sale. After the initial public offering, shares are bought and sold
through broker-dealers in the secondary marketplace, and the market
price of the shares is determined by supply and demand, not by net
asset value (NAV), and is often lower than the NAV. A closed-end
fund is not required to buy its shares back from investors upon
request.
The fund is leveraged through a revolving credit facility and
also may incur leverage by issuing preferred shares in the future.
The use of leverage results in certain risks, including, among
others, the likelihood of greater volatility of net asset value and
the market value of common shares. Derivatives involve risks,
including interest rate risk, credit risk, the risk of improper
valuation, and the risk of noncorrelation to the relevant
instruments they are designed to hedge or closely track. There are
numerous risks associated with transactions in options on
securities and/or indices. As a writer of an index call option, the
fund forgoes the opportunity to profit from increases in the values
of securities held by the fund. However, the fund has retained the
risk of loss (net of premiums received), should the price of the
fund’s portfolio securities decline. Similar risks are involved
with writing call options or secured put options on individual
securities and/or indices held in the fund’s portfolio. This
combination of potentially limited appreciation and potentially
unlimited depreciation over time may lead to a decline in the net
asset value of the fund. Foreign investments may contain more risk
due to the inherent risks associated with changing political
climates, foreign market instability, and foreign currency
fluctuations. Risks of foreign investing are magnified in emerging
or developing markets. Small- and mid-cap securities may be subject
to special risks associated with narrower product lines and limited
financial resources compared with their large-cap counterparts,
and, as a result, small- and mid-cap securities may decline
significantly in market downturns and may be more volatile than
those of larger companies due to their higher risk of failure.
High-yield, lower-rated bonds may contain more risk due to the
increased possibility of default. Illiquid securities may be
subject to wide fluctuations in market value. The fund may be
subject to significant delays in disposing of illiquid securities.
Accordingly, the fund may be forced to sell these securities at
less than fair market value or may not be able to sell them when
the advisor or subadvisor believes that it is desirable to do so.
This closed-end fund is no longer available as an initial public
offering and is only offered through broker-dealers on the
secondary market.
Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM) is the trade name for
certain investment advisory/management firms owned by Wells Fargo
& Company. These firms include but are not limited to Wells
Capital Management Incorporated and Wells Fargo Funds Management,
LLC. Certain products managed by WFAM entities are distributed by
Wells Fargo Funds Distributor, LLC (a broker-dealer and Member
FINRA).
This material is for general informational and educational
purposes only and is NOT intended to provide investment advice or a
recommendation of any kind—including a recommendation for any
specific investment, strategy, or plan.
Some of the information contained herein may include
forward-looking statements about the expected investment activities
of the funds. These statements provide no assurance as to the
funds’ actual investment activities or results. Readers must make
their own assessment of the information contained herein and
consider such other factors as they may deem relevant to their
individual circumstances. 405462 08-19
INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: NOT FDIC INSURED ● NO BANK GUARANTEE ●
MAY LOSE VALUE
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190815005177/en/
Rob Julavits, 646-618-2790 robert.w.julavits@wellsfargo.com
Sarah Kerr, 917-260-1582 skerr@wellsfargo.com
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