Contact:
Chad Peterson
(704) 383-0431
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April 03, 1998
Evergreen Grows $100 Million in a Day
Focuses on Florida Municipal Bond Funds
CHARLOTTE-In a single day, Evergreen Funds added more than $100 million in assets to the Evergreen Florida High Income Municipal Bond Fund as the $47 billion fund family focused its distribution efforts on the potential benefits investors enjoy through investing in municipal bond funds.
"It is with great pride and pleasure that I announce this historic day of sales," said Mike Treske, President of Evergreen Investment Services. "The first day of the Florida promotion has passed, and the funds raised $103 million in the Florida High Income Municipal Bond Fund. We also raised an additional $5 million in the Florida Municipal Bond Fund. This sales success surpasses our most aggressive forecasts and is a reflection of our investment management prowess and distribution strength."
The fund invests primarily in a diversified portfolio of high-yield, medium and lower-rated, and unrated securities. These are issued by state and local governments to support their financial needs, or to finance public projects such as roads, schools, and water and sewer systems.
The fund is managed by Rick Marrone, who has 18 years of investment and market expertise. Marrone is assisted by Jill Richman, the fund's Florida analyst, who has more than six years experience in the Florida bond market.
"The fund could be an excellent choice for investors seeking a potentially high level of current income which for Florida residents is exempt from the Florida intangibles tax and the federal income tax,"* said Mike Treske. "Having historically done well in both rising and declining interest rate environments Rick has clearly demonstrated why this fund is rated five-stars overall by Morningstar (A shares. The fund was rated among 1494 municipal bond funds for the three year period ending 12/31/97),"**
Marrone attributes the fund's success to thorough credit work. "Jill, who lives in Florida and works out of Palm Beach, is an incredible asset to the fund. She visits all of our issuers in person, inspects the projects we invest in and is very plugged into the municipal market. This very often enables us to take advantage of investment opportunities, before many others hear of them," Marrone said.
In addition to aiding performance, good credit work has also kept the fund out of investment potholes. The fund has never experienced a default in its portfolio.
"Investors should not automatically equate non-rated bonds with high-risk because many of these bonds are of good credit quality. Since the majority of non-rated bonds are small issuers, a non-rated bond may represent an inability to pay for a bond rating rather than an inability to qualify for one," Marrone said.
By investing in high-yield, medium and lower-rated, and unrated securities, the Evergreen Florida High Income Municipal Bond Fund can potentially provide higher levels of income than investment-grade securities. Of course, high-yield securities are subject to greater market fluctuations and risk or loss of principal than higher-rated securities.
In 1994, the Evergreen Fund Family had $7 billion in assets under management, today it has more than $47 billion.
Evergreen offers a wide array of investment products distributed by full-service brokers, financial planners and banks. For more complete information about Evergreen Funds please call your investment representative to receive a prospectus or visit us on the web. You may also obtain information on Evergreen Funds by calling 800-343-2898. Read carefully before investing. Evergreen Distributor, Inc.
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* Income may be subject to Federal AMT.
** Morningstar proprietary rating reflects historical risk-adjusted performance as of 12/31/97. The ratings are subject to change every month. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Morningstar ratigns are calculated from the funds' three, five, and ten-year average annual returns (if available) in excess of 90-day Treasury Bill returns with appropriate fee adjustments and a risk factor that reflects fund performance below 90-day T-bill returns. The fund was rated 5 stars among 1494 and 720 municipal bond funds for the 3 and 5 year period ending 12/31/97. Ten percent of the funds in a rating universe receive five stars.
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