Federated Investors has completed its acquisition of the $365.7 million
Rochdale Atlas Portfolio and transitioned the fund's assets into the new
Federated InterContinental Fund. Two Rochdale investment managers,
Audrey H. Kaplan and
Geoffrey Pazzanese, who worked on the Atlas fund, have been hired by Federated to manage the new Federated fund. Kaplan will serve as senior vice president and senior portfolio manager, and Pazzanese will serve as assistant vice president and portfolio manager.
Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII - News), one of the nation's largest investment managers, today announced the completion of the acquisition of certain assets of Rochdale Investment Management LLC that relate to the management of the $365.7 million Rochdale Atlas Portfolio, a mutual fund that invests in international stocks. The announcement was made by Federated President and CEO J. Christopher Donahue and Rochdale Chairman Carl Acebes.
Federated transitioned the assets of the Rochdale Atlas Portfolio into the new Federated InterContinental Fund and hired two Rochdale investment managers, Audrey H. Kaplan and Geoffrey Pazzanese, to manage the new Federated fund that will continue the investment operations of the Rochdale fund.
The Federated InterContinental Fund is positioned to be a core international equity holding that invests in both developed and emerging markets. It is managed through a proprietary process that focuses on identifying the country markets with the strongest potential for performance.
The Federated InterContinental Fund, as the successor to the Rochdale fund, has an overall 5-star Morningstar Rating among the 547 foreign large- blend funds in Morningstar's Foreign Large-Blend Category. Morningstar ratings are based on risk-adjusted total return for the period ended June 30, 2007. The overall rating is derived from a weighted average of a fund's 3-, 5- and 10-year average annual returns, as applicable.
Based on total return, the Federated InterContinental Fund (A shares), as the successor to the Rochdale fund, outperformed its Lipper International Multi-Cap Core Category average for the 1-, 3- and 5-year periods as of June 30, 2007, where it ranked in the first, second and third percentiles of its Lipper category, respectively. For the periods ended June 30, 2007, Federated InterContinental Fund, as the successor to the Rochdale fund, ranked 2 out of 352 funds for 1 year; 4 out of 246 for 3 years; and 4 out of 190 for 5 years.
"Through its strategic combination of stocks from developed and emerging market countries, the Federated InterContinental Fund offers mutual fund investors a higher level of diversification, making it a solid addition to Federated's international equity fund line-up," Donahue said. "Along with the recent hiring of a team leader for our international portfolio management efforts, the acquisition of these assets and Rochdale's proprietary country allocation technology demonstrate our commitment to excellence in international investing."
"Our clients will continue to benefit from the innovative investment intelligence that Rochdale developed, combined with the substantial global resources of Federated," Acebes said.
Kaplan, who has more than 18 years of industry experience, will be senior vice president and senior portfolio manager for the Federated InterContinental Fund. Prior to joining Federated, she managed the Rochdale Atlas Portfolio at Rochdale Investment Management; worked in European quantitative strategy for Merrill Lynch in London; researched global emerging markets at Robert Fleming in London; and completed equity, fixed-income and derivative analysis with Salomon Brothers in Tokyo and New York.
Pazzanese, who has seven years of industry experience, will serve as assistant vice president and portfolio manager on the Federated InterContinental Fund. He most recently served as portfolio manager for the Rochdale Atlas Portfolio and senior quantitative analyst at Rochdale working on international markets. His previous experience includes working on the sell side with the international quantitative strategy group at Merrill Lynch and with the Italian engineering firm AXIS S.p.A. in Florence, Italy, as a sales and marketing manager.
The transaction was approved by Rochdale Atlas Portfolio shareholders at a meeting on Aug. 24, 2007. The transaction had previously been approved by the board of directors of Federated Investors, Inc., the Federated mutual fund board of trustees and the Rochdale Investment Trust board of trustees.
Federated Investors, Inc. is one of the largest investment managers in the United States, managing approximately $260 billion in assets as of June 30, 2007. With 151 mutual funds and various separately managed account options, Federated provides comprehensive investment management to more than 5,400 institutions and intermediaries including corporations, government entities, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, banks and broker/dealers.
Rochdale Investment Management LLC is a private investment counseling firm specializing in intelligently personalized portfolio management for high net worth individuals. Based in New York City with offices nationwide, Rochdale manages $2.6 billion in assets as of June 30, 2007. Working in concert with each client's financial advisor or CPA, Rochdale develops and manages a customized portfolio for each client. Investment strategies are implemented through proprietary separate accounts and funds. The firm's hallmark is providing integrity, intelligence and innovation in investment management. For more information, visit http://www.rochdale.com.
Certain statements in this press release, such as those related to the diversification of the Federated InterContinental Fund, Federated's commitment to international investing, and the benefits to clients resulting from the transaction, constitute forward-looking statements, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements of Federated, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward- looking statements. Among other risks and uncertainties is the ability of Federated to successfully maintain diversification in the portfolio, maintain its commitment to international investing, and to provide continued benefits to clients, and the risk factors discussed in Federated's annual and quarterly reports as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Many of these factors may be impacted by the ongoing threat of terrorism. As a result, no assurance can be given as to future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements, and neither Federated nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of such statements.
Federated Securities Corp. is distributor of the Federated funds.
RIM Securities LLC is distributor of the Rochdale funds.
Rochdale Investment Management and RIM Securities are not affiliated with Federated.
Federated separately managed accounts are made available through Federated Investment Counseling and MDT Advisers, both registered investment advisors.
Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Investing in international companies carries risks such as currency fluctuation, interest rate fluctuation, and economic and political instability.
For each fund with at least a 3-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating(TM) based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly performance (including the effects of sales charges, loads, and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) The Overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted-average of the performance figures associated with its 3-, 5- and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. Ratings are for Class A Shares; other classes may have different performance characteristics. For the 3-year period ended 6/30/07, the Rochdale Atlas Portfolio (RIMAX) received 5 stars and was rated among 547 funds. For the 5-year period ended 6/30/07, the Rochdale Atlas Portfolio (RIMAX) received 5 stars and was rated among 446 funds. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Morningstar Category identifies funds based on their actual investment styles as measured by their underlying portfolio holdings over the past three years. If the fund is less than three years old, the category is based on the life of the fund. ©2007 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Lipper rankings do not consider sales charges.
For more complete information, visit FederatedInvestors.com for a prospectus. You should consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before you invest. Information about these and other important subjects is in the fund's prospectus, which you should read carefully before investing.
The Federated InterContinental Fund is the successor to the Rochdale Atlas Portfolio pursuant to a reorganization that took place on Aug. 24, 2007. Prior to that date, the fund had no investment operations. Accordingly, performance information for periods prior to Aug. 24, 2007, is historical for the Rochdale Atlas Portfolio.
Mutual funds are subject to risks and fluctuate in value. 
Edited by:
Erin Kello
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