Ivy Emerging Markets Local Currency Debt Fund announces launch

By Toni Weeks

San Luis Obispo, Calif., April 30 - Ivy Funds announced in a press release the launch of its new Ivy Emerging Markets Local Currency Debt Fund.

According to the release, the fund will invest primarily in sovereign debt securities issued in the local currencies of emerging market countries.

"At a time when emerging markets exert growing importance across the globe, the fund allows Ivy Funds to further engage advisers and investors, allowing them to tap debt securities through a fund that fits well within our overall product lineup," Thomas W. Butch, president and chief executive officer of Ivy Funds Distributor, Inc., said in the release.

As previously reported, the fund will seek to provide total return through a combination of current income and capital appreciation. Under normal circumstances, it will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in debt securities that are denominated in emerging market currencies as well as in derivative instruments that provide investment exposure to those debt securities.

"Emerging markets represent roughly 80% of the world's population and land mass, but when you look at investors' allocations, many are out of sync with the changes that have occurred in the macro world," Simon Lue-Fong, head portfolio manager of the fund, said in the press release. "One of the ways to capture this story is through emerging market bonds."

Lue-Fong is head of emerging debt at Pictet Asset Management Ltd., the fund's subadviser, which is making its first foray into the United States as a subadviser on a 1940 Act mutual fund in the emerging markets category. The remaining members of the Pictet investment team are Orlena Yee, Mary-Therese Barton, Wee-Ming Ting, Philippe Petit and Guido Chamorro.

The fund offers class A, class C, class E, class I, class R and class Y shares. Ticker symbols are IECAX, IECCX, IECEX, IECIX, IECRX and IECYX.

Shareholder fees consist of a 5.75% sales load for class A and class E shares and a 1% maximum deferred sales load for class A and class C shares.

Including management fees of 0.9%, total annual fund operating expense are expected to be 1.25% for class A and class Y, 2% for class C, 1.4% for class E, 1% for class I and 1.5% for class R shares.

Shawnee Mission, Kan.-based Ivy Investment Management Co., a subsidiary of Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc., is the fund's investment manager.

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