NAPERVILLE, Ill., March 24, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- For the second consecutive year, CALAMOS INVESTMENTS' John P. Calamos Sr. and Nick P. Calamos were honored with a Standard & Poor's/BusinessWeek 2004 Excellence in Fund Management Award for management of the CALAMOS Growth & Income Fund (Nasdaq:CVTRX).
Award winners were announced in the March 22 issue of BusinessWeek, and CALAMOS was among only five out of the nine that also won in 2003, the first year the awards were given. This year's winners were selected from the broad universe of mutual funds based on criteria including risk-adjusted total returns, total assets, fund manager consistency, expenses, turnover, investment philosophy, research methodology, support staff and stock selection.
"We're thrilled that the Growth & Income Fund received top marks again this year," said John P. Calamos Sr., founder, chairman, chief executive officer and chief investment officer. "The Fund is an excellent example of our belief that a flexible, risk-managed approach best serves investors over the long term."
As of Feb. 27, 2004, the Fund's average annualized total returns (Class A shares) were:
-- One year: 31.84% before 4.75% front-end load, 25.56% after load -- Five years: 15.44 % before load, 14.31% after load -- Ten years: 15.46% before load, 14.90% after load
Since the Fund's inception in 1988, it has been managed by John Calamos Sr. and Nick Calamos, senior executive vice president and head of investments. It invests in a diversified portfolio of equity and fixed income securities, including convertible bonds emphasizing total return through capital appreciation and current income.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Current performance may be lower or higher than performance quoted. The principal value and investment return of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. You can obtain more current performance data by visiting www.calamos.com.
You should consider the Fund's investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of the investment carefully before investing. For this and other information, please obtain a Fund prospectus from CALAMOS FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC., the Funds' distributor, at 800-582-6959 and read it carefully before investing.
Average annual total return measures net investment income and capital gain or loss from portfolio investments as an annualized average, assuming reinvestment of dividend and capital gain distributions. Where indicated, returns for A shares have been adjusted for a maximum sales charge of 4.75%.
In addition to market risk, there are certain risks associated with investments in convertibles such as default risk -- the company issuing a convertibles security may be unable to repay principal and interest -- and interest rate risk -- the convertible may decrease in value if interest rates increase.
The Fund may invest up to 25% of its assets in foreign securities, which present special risk considerations such as fluctuations in foreign currencies or difficulty obtaining information.
About CALAMOS
CALAMOS INVESTMENTS provides professional money management services to clients that include major corporations, public and private institutions, pension funds, insurance companies and individuals and is investment advisor to a family of mutual funds. It offers equity, convertible growth, convertible, high yield, global/international, and alternative investment strategies. Engaged in securities research and investing since 1977, the firm manages nearly $26.1 billion in assets as of Feb. 29, 2004.
Standard & Poor's/BusinessWeek Excellence in Fund Management Awards Methodology Standard & Poor's methodology for the Excellence in Fund Management Awards program is built upon funds that have received a BusinessWeek category ranking of "A". The BusinessWeek methodology uses the 5-year total return of the S&P 500 as the underlying benchmark. The top 7.5% of the funds using the BusinessWeek Category Fund Ranking receive an "A" ranking. The following is a simplified breakdown of BusinessWeek's Methodology:
1. Calculate the fund's 5-year cumulative load adjusted total
return.
2. Calculate the S&P 500 five year total return.
3. For each fund, divide step 1 by step 2 to obtain the
normalized total return.
4. Calculate 60 monthly returns for each fund (non-load adjusted).
5. Calculate 60 monthly returns for the 3-month US Treasury Bill.
6. Calculate the fund's excess return for each 60-month period
by subtracting the U.S. Treasury Bill return from the fund's
return. (Step 4 Step 5)
7. For each fund sum together all negative excess returns from
step 6.
8. Take the absolute value from step 7 to get the fund's raw
risk.
9. Divide the raw risk from step 8 by the S&P 500's risk to
get the funds normalized risk return.
10. Subtract the normalized risk calculation from the
normalized total return. (Step 3 Step 9)
After narrowing down the field of domestic mutual funds (15,878) to show only those ranked "A" by BusinessWeek, Standard & Poor's applied the following conditions to further reduce the final number of potential candidates:
-- Asset size of a fund must be at least $100 million
-- Minimum initial investment of all funds must be less
than $26,000
-- All funds must be open to new investments
-- Fund Manager start date must be on or before December 31, 1998
Standard & Poor's fund analysts then appraised the fund's performance return versus that of its peers over a one, three, and five-year period. Other pertinent information such as the fund's turnover, expense ratio, and holdings data were also factored into the fund's evaluation.
After concluding the above, Standard & Poor's fund analysts then began the final phase in the screening process. In this critical phase, Standard & Poor's reviewed the management of a fund for its ability to fundamentally demonstrate a clear investment philosophy, a disciplined investment process, and a support staff rich in experience and deep in breadth. This phase of the screening process was also used to exclude those funds that:
-- Witnessed a large increase or decrease in assets under
management over the past few years
-- Witnessed a major change at the fund sponsor (i.e., mergers,
acquisitions, change in fund management team)
-- Performed below the average of its peers in both strong and
challenging market conditions
-- Witnessed a drift in the fund's stated investment style over
the past five years
-- Showed assets under management smaller than the average of
its peers
-- Showed inconsistency in its returns
-- Showed a return not justifying the current level of its
expenses
After concluding the above, Standard & Poor's selected a very limited number of Excellence in Fund Management Award winners that it determined to have historically provided strong management to the fund while consistently producing sound performance.