The Fund uses a growth style of investment in equity securities, including common stocks and other equity securities of issuers. Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests substantially all (no less than 80%) of its net assets (plus the amount of borrowings for investment purposes) in small capitalization emerging markets companies. For purposes of the Fund, the investment adviser considers a company to be a small capitalization company if it is within the same market capitalization range at the time of investment as those included in the MSCI Emerging Markets Small Cap Index. For the avoidance of doubt, while the reference index is “float-adjusted,” meaning it excludes closely held and other shares unavailable to investors, the investment adviser does not consider a float-adjustment when determining the market capitalization of a company. As of March 31, 2024, approximately 97% of the MSCI Emerging Markets Small Cap Index consisted of companies with a market capitalization of less than $5 billion.

Emerging markets companies are (i) companies organized under the laws of an emerging market country or having securities which are traded principally on an exchange or over-the-counter in an emerging market country; or (ii) companies which, regardless of where organized or traded, have a significant amount of assets located in and/or derive a significant amount of their revenues from goods purchased or sold, investments made or services performed in or with emerging market countries. The Fund generally defines an “emerging market” as including, but not limited to, any of the countries or markets represented in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, or any other country or market with similar emerging characteristics. There are also no specific limitations on the percentage of assets that may be invested in securities of issuers located in any one country at a given time; the Fund may invest significant assets in any single emerging market country. The Fund may invest in companies with limited or no operating histories. The Fund frequently and actively trades its portfolio securities.

Investment decisions for the Fund’s growth style of investing, for those companies with operating histories, are based on the determination that a company’s revenue and earnings growth can materially exceed market expectations and that a company possesses the ability to undergo an incrementally positive change in growth and earnings trajectories. These decisions involve evaluating fundamental factors, including the company’s business model, the competitive landscape, upcoming product introductions and recent and projected financial metrics. The evaluation of behavioral and macro factors represents significant aspects of the investment adviser’s philosophy and are integrated into the investment adviser’s bottom-up analysis on individual securities. The decision is also informed by the evaluation of technical or market factors, including price and volume trends, relative strength and institutional interest. To a lesser extent, the Fund’s investment adviser also utilizes macroeconomic or country-specific analyses to evaluate the sustainability of a company’s growth rate. The Fund sells holdings for a variety of reasons, including the deterioration of the earnings profile, the violation of specific technical thresholds, to shift into securities with more compelling risk/reward characteristics or to alter sector or country exposure.