Third Avenue Management
May 13, 2008
Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund (TASCX) (the “Fund”) will reopen to new investors as of May 19, 2008, it was announced by David Barse, President and Chief Executive Officer of Third Avenue Management LLC, the investment adviser to the Fund.
Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund, with assets of approximately $1.8 billion, seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in the equity securities of well-financed, well-managed small companies believed to be priced below their intrinsic values. The Fund, which is rated four stars* by Morningstar®, has outperformed** its peer group*** and relevant indices****, with a one-year total return of -2.96% and five- and ten-year average annual returns of 16.16% and 9.61%, respectively.
The Fund was closed in February 2006 in order to responsibly manage its large cash position that resulted from unprecedented cash inflows during 2005. “We remained extremely deliberate and careful in how we invested the excess cash in the portfolio during the period that the Fund was closed. Today’s market environment presents an increasing number of promising long-term investment opportunities, and we do not wish to sell existing positions until they reach their full valuations,” noted Curtis Jensen, Co- Chief Investment Officer of Third Avenue Management and Portfolio Manager of Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund.
Third Avenue Management LLC is an investment advisory firm that offers its services to private and institutional clients. Third Avenue adheres to a disciplined bottom-up value investment strategy to identify investment opportunities in undervalued securities of companies with high quality assets, understandable businesses and strong management teams that have the potential to create value over the long term. Third Avenue Management offers value-oriented strategies, available in mutual funds, separate accounts and alternative investment vehicles.
* Star-ratings are based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund’s monthly performance (including the effects of sales charges and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The overall rating is a weighted average of the 3-, 5-, and 10-year (if applicable) ratings. 5 stars = top 10% of funds in a category; 4 stars = next 22.5% of funds; 3 stars = middle 35%; 2 stars = next 22.5%; 1 star = bottom 10%. A fund must be in existence three years to be rated. The Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund received 4 stars for each of the 3-year, 5-year, 10-year periods ended April 30, 2008 among 520, 409 and 174 Small-Blend funds, respectively. Ratings are subject to change monthly.
** Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
*** The average one-year, five-year and ten-year annual returns, for the funds included in Morningstar’s® Small-Blend Category were -12.69%, 13.56% and 6.60%, respectively, as of April 30, 2008.
**** The Russell 2000 returned -10.96%, 13.76% and 5.33% for the one-year, five-year and ten-year periods ended April 30, 2008, respectively. The Russell 2000 Value returned -15.13%, 14.08% and 7.74% for the one-year, five-year and ten-year periods ended April 30, 2008, respectively. The Russell 2000 Value Index measures the performance of those Russell 2000 companies with lower price-to-book ratios and lower forecasted growth values. The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest companies in the Russell 3000 Index, which represents approximately 8% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 3000 Index. Both the Russell 2000 Value and Russell 2000 Indices are not securities that can be purchased or sold, and their total returns are reflective of an unmanaged portfolio. The returns include reinvestment of interest, capital gains and dividends.