Under normal market conditions, the Fund attempts to provide consistent distributions to shareholders. However, because of the current market environment the Fund's management felt that it was prudent to decrease the dividend rate at this time. The Fund's management considered a number of factors before coming to the decision to decrease the distribution rate, including the lower net investment income earned on the Fund's lower asset levels, as well as, uncertainty in future corporate dividend rates due to extreme market volatility and unprecedented economic circumstances. Furthermore, the Fund's portfolio management team believes that the new distribution level may provide the Fund with greater flexibility to seek to take advantage of what they consider to be under valued securities and other attractive market opportunities that may enhance the Fund's total return profile over the long-term.
Despite the challenging market environment, John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Global Shareholder Yield Fund has had strong relative performance versus its Lipper peer group of Global Funds (with 21 funds in the group). The Fund ranked in the top 15% of its peer group based on total return at NAV for the 1-year period ending
The Fund's Board of Trustees continues to actively consider all tools available at its disposal to seek to enhance shareholder value. At its meeting on
The Fund is a diversified, closed-end fund. The Fund's investment objective is to provide total return consisting of a high level of current income and gains and long term capital appreciation. The Fund seeks to achieve favorable after-tax returns for its shareholders by seeking to minimize the federal income tax consequences on income and gains generated by the Fund. There can be no assurances that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. Under normal market condition, the Fund invests at least 80% of its total assets in a diversified portfolio of dividend-paying stocks of issuers located throughout the world. The Fund also writes call options on a variety of both U.S. and non-U.S. broad-based indices.
About John Hancock Funds
The
About John Hancock Financial and Manulife Financial Corporation
John Hancock Financial is a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation (the Company), a leading Canadian-based financial services group serving millions of customers in 19 countries and territories worldwide. Operating as Manulife Financial in
Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '0945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.
The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in
The performance data contained within this press release represents past performance, which does not guarantee future results. Performance, especially for short time periods, should not be the sole factor in making your investment decision. Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined by
SOURCE John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Global Shareholder Yield Fund