Lazard Global Total Return and Income Fund Announces Change to Investment Strategy

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Lazard Global Total Return and Income Fund, Inc. LGI (the "Fund"), a closed-end investment company, announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a change to the Fund's investment strategy, as described below.

The Fund is a diversified, closed-end management investment company which commenced investment operations on April 28, 2004. The Fund's investment objective is total return, consisting of capital appreciation and current income.

The Fund's investment objective is not changing. The Fund's investment strategy change is not required to be approved by shareholders, and the Fund anticipates beginning to implement the change on or around September 1, 2016 (the "Effective Date").

The Fund will continue to pursue its investment objective through a combination of two separate investment strategies – a Global Equity Strategy and an Emerging Income Strategy – investing in a portfolio of global equity securities and also seeking enhanced income by investing in short duration (typically less than one year) emerging market forward currency contracts and other emerging market debt instruments.

As of the Effective Date, pursuant to the Global Equity Strategy, the Fund invests in a portfolio of approximately 60 to 100 non-US equity securities ("Global Equity Investments"), including American Depository Receipts. The Fund generally invests in securities of companies with market capitalizations greater than $2 billion and may invest in emerging markets. The Fund's net asset value, which is expressed in US dollars, may be negatively affected by the strengthening of the US dollar versus the currencies in which Global Equity Investments are denominated. The Fund may, but is not required to, engage in currency hedging transactions with respect to Global Equity Investments denominated in non-US currencies to hedge the Fund's exposure to such currencies' fluctuations in exchange rates with the US dollar.

Emerging market countries can generally have economic structures that are less diverse and mature, and political systems that are less stable, than those of developed countries. The economies of countries with emerging markets may be based predominantly on only a few industries, may be highly vulnerable to changes in local or global trade conditions, and may suffer from extreme debt burdens or volatile inflation rates. The securities markets of emerging market countries have historically been extremely volatile. These market conditions may continue or worsen. Investments in these countries may be subject to political, economic, legal, market and currency risks. The risks may include less protection of property rights and uncertain political and economic policies, the imposition of capital controls and/or foreign investment limitations by a country, nationalization of businesses and the imposition of sanctions by other countries, such as the US. Significant devaluation of emerging market currencies against the US dollar may occur subsequent to acquisition of investments denominated in emerging market currencies.

In engaging in currency hedging transactions, Lazard Asset Management LLC ("LAM" or the "Investment Manager") may not be able to accurately predict movements in currency exchange rates, and there may be imperfect correlations between movements in exchange rates that could cause the Fund to incur significant losses.

Sector and country selection is an outgrowth of the Investment Manager's stock selection process. In managing Global Equity Investments according to the Investment Manager's bottom-up (securities-based) approach to security selection, the portfolio management team focuses on finding undervalued equities across all sectors and countries and does not set target exposures at the sector or country level.

Consideration is given to sector and industry commitments as part of the Investment Manager's risk-monitoring mechanism, and the portfolio management team draws upon the expertise of the Investment Manager's Global Risk Management team. While there are no strict sector or country limits, sector and country weights are monitored using the MSCI All Country World Index (the "MSCI ACW Index") as a guide.

As part of the change to the Fund's investment strategy, the Fund's benchmark index will change from the MSCI World Index to the MSCI ACW Index.

The Fund's Emerging Income Strategy is not changing.

An indirect subsidiary of Lazard Ltd LAZ, LAM, the Fund's investment manager, offers a range of equity, fixed-income, and alternative investment products worldwide. As of June 30, 2016, LAM and affiliated asset management companies in the Lazard Group managed $192 billion worth of client assets. For more information about LAM, please go to www.LazardNet.com.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the Fund's shares in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the laws of such state or jurisdiction.

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