Ucits

UCITS III

(The following only aim to provide general background information; and cannot be construed as professional advice. You should consult your distributor and/or fund house to obtaindetailed information on the funds you have invested in or are interested in; and seek their advice on UCITS III and other fund-related issues before making any investment decisions.)

1. What does UCITSstand for? What is the difference between UCITS I, II and III?

UCITS stands for the Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities.
The first UCITS Directive (“UCITS I”) wasadopted in 1985 to implement a single regulatory regime across the European Union (“EU”) for open-ended funds to invest in transferable securities. When a UCITS is authorized by a member state of theEU in which it is situated, such authorization is valid for all member states and no further authorization will be required if the UCITS is marketed in other member states.
However, individualmarketing rules in each EU member state and the limited definition of permitted investments for UCITS I had weakened the marketing possibilities of a UCITS. In the early 1990's, proposals were developed toamend the 1985 Directive - leading to the draft UCITS II directive, but were subsequently abandoned as no common approach was adopted.
In 1998, the European Commission published a new proposal toamend the 1985 Directive. These proposals were finally adopted in December 2001 and are generally referred to as UCITS III. UCITS III consists of the following two directives:

The “ManagementDirective” seeks to give management companies a "European passport" to operate throughout the EU and expands the range of activities which they are allowed to undertake. It also introduces the concept ofa simplified prospectus, which intends to provide information in a simplified format to assist the cross – border marketing of UCITSs throughout Europe; and

The “Product Directive” aims to...