Eaton Vance Announces Filing of Fourth Amended Exemptive Application For Exchange-Traded Managed Funds

Eaton Vance Management (Eaton Vance), a subsidiary of Eaton Vance Corp. EV, today announced the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of a fourth amendment to its application seeking exemptive relief to permit the offering of exchange-traded managed funds (ETMFs). The ETMF exemptive application was originally filed on March 27, 2013 and previously amended on September 12, 2013, January 23, 2014 and September 15, 2014. ETMFs are a proposed new type of open-end fund that seek to provide the cost and tax efficiencies of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to investors in active fund strategies, while maintaining the confidentiality of current portfolio trading information. ETMFs would trade on an exchange at prices directly linked to the fund's next-determined daily net asset value (NAV), using a proposed new trading protocol called "NAV-based trading." In NAV-based trading, prices would vary from NAV by a market-determined premium or discount, which may be zero. Because ETMFs would provide market makers with opportunities to earn reliable, low-risk profits without intraday hedging and because they would trade in a transparent manner on an exchange, ETMFs can be expected to trade at prices that are consistently close to NAV in the absence of daily portfolio holdings disclosure. Because ETMFs would trade at known premiums or discounts to NAV, the cost to buy or sell an ETMF will always be fully transparent. Sponsors of actively managed funds have to date largely avoided introducing their leading strategies as ETFs because the required daily holdings disclosures can facilitate front-running of portfolio trades and enable other investors to replicate the fund's portfolio positioning and exploit its research insights. By removing the requirement for daily holdings disclosures, ETMFs can potentially enable investors to access a broad range of active strategies in a structure that provides the investor benefits of an exchange-traded fund. Aspects of ETMFs and NAV-based trading are protected intellectual property subject to issued and pending U.S. patents. Eaton Vance seeks to license the underlying technology and provide related services to fund sponsors through its subsidiary Navigate Fund Solutions LLC (Navigate). For more information about Navigate, contact Stephen W. Clarke, President, at 617-672-8660 or sclarke@navigatefundsolutions.com. Eaton Vance Corp. is one of the oldest investment management firms in the United States, with a history dating back to 1924. Eaton Vance and its affiliates managed $288.2 billion in assets as of July 31, 2014, offering individuals and institutions a broad array of investment strategies and wealth management solutions. Eaton Vance's long record of providing exemplary service, timely innovation and attractive returns through a variety of market conditions has made it the investment manager of choice for many of today's most discerning investors. For more information, visit eatonvance.com.