Emilio Gonzalez speaks at the Morningstar Annual Investment Conference 29 April 2010
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Effective as at 10.30 am (AEST), 19 December 2008, BT Investment Management has suspended withdrawals from the BT Global Return Fund (GRF). New and additional investments are also not currently being accepted into the Fund.

The decision follows receipt of notification today that the underlying manager of the GRF, Grosvenor Capital Management L.P. (“Grosvenor”), has taken action to segregate a portion of the less liquid assets of the Grosvenor Master Fund, Ltd (GMFL), in which the GRF invests. The result of these assets being segregated is that they are not currently available to meet redemptions in the GRF. Grosvenor has not suspended redemptions in the GMFL.

Grosvenor’s actions and BTIM’s subsequent decision to initiate the suspension have been made to protect investors’ interests and to ensure that continuing investors are not disadvantaged by withdrawals from the GRF. This is because allowing investors to withdraw would mean that the continuing investors would hold an increasing proportion of the segregated (less liquid) assets.

It is currently expected that investors in the GRF will continue to receive distributions to the extent that distributable income is available.

Unit prices will continue to be calculated once a month as at the last Business Day of the month and will be generally available 11 business days after the end of the month. However, these are indicative unit prices and investors will not be able to transact on these prices. If an investor makes a redemption request during the time of the suspension, the unit price that will apply once the suspension lifts will be the price determined based on asset values at that time in accordance with the Fund’s constitution.

We will continue to update investors with developments as these become available.