Company Press Release

First Trust Advisors L.P. ("First Trust"), a leading provider of investment products and services that help financial advisors meet the financial needs and objectives of their clients, today announced the addition of nine new international-focused funds to the AlphaDEX family of exchange-traded funds ("ETFs"). These additions are comprised of two broad market and seven country-specific funds listed below. The country-specific funds are launching today, while the other two will launch tomorrow.

The AlphaDEX ETFs are designed to track the performance of a group of custom "enhanced" indexes which employ a proprietary, rules-based, fundamental stock selection methodology. The AlphaDEX family of funds consists of a diverse range of sector, style, multi-cap and international funds.

"We believe this is the optimal time to expand the AlphaDEX family because of the strong opportunities for alpha that exist within developed and emerging markets, as well as specific countries whose economies are showing long-term growth potential," said Dan Waldron, Senior Vice President and ETF Strategist for First Trust. "We are committed to providing investors with opportunities to capitalize on companies outside the U.S. through ETFs using our AlphaDEX methodology."

The indexes that provide the basis for the AlphaDEX funds start with a broad-based index and are enhanced through a proprietary methodology that ranks the stock using several factors. The goal of the methodology is to identify the stocks within the index that exhibit the fundamental characteristics that enable them to provide the greatest potential for capital appreciation. The enhanced indexing approach seeks to generate positive alpha relative to the broad-based passive index from which it selects its stocks. Every step in the process is driven by a transparent, repeatable quantitative process.

The nine new AlphaDEX ETFs are:

First Trust Germany AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FGM)
First Trust Canada AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FCAN)
First Trust Australia AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FAUS)
First Trust United Kingdom AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FKU)
First Trust Taiwan AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FTW)
First Trust Hong Kong AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FHK)
First Trust Switzerland AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FSZ)
First Trust Developed Markets ex-U.S. Small Cap AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FDTS)
First Trust Emerging Markets Small Cap AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FEMS)

"With more than half of the world equity market capitalization represented by companies based outside of the U.S. and the accelerated pace of globalization, these additions to the First Trust AlphaDEX lineup provide investors with the potential for targeted international exposure and portfolio diversification," said Mr. Waldron.

For more information about First Trust, please contact Chris Moon of JCPR at 973-850-7304 or by email at cmoon@jcprinc.com.

About First Trust

Based in Wheaton, IL, First Trust and its affiliate First Trust Advisors L.P., provide a broad range of investment products and services that help financial advisors meet the financial needs and objectives of their clients. Among the firms' more than 200 investment product offerings are its family of 60 Exchange-Traded Funds, including the AlphaDEX® series of ETFs. As of January 31, 2011, 17 First Trust ETFs, including 10 AlphaDEX® ETFs, received a 4- or 5-Star Overall Morningstar RatingTM.* Founded in 1991 with the goal of offering investors a better way to invest, First Trust is nationally recognized for its proprietary, rules-based, quantitative investment methodology which it makes available in several of its product lines. As of 1/31/12, the firms managed or supervised approximately $51 billion in assets. For more information, visit www.ftportfolios.com.

You should consider the funds' investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses carefully before investing. Contact First Trust Portfolios L.P. at 1-800-621-1675 or visit www.ftportfolios.com to obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus which contains this and other information about each fund. The prospectus or summary prospectus should be read carefully before investing.

Risk Considerations: You could lose money by investing in a fund. Investors buying or selling fund shares on the secondary market may incur brokerage commissions. Investors who sell fund shares may receive less than the share's net asset value. A fund may be concentrated in an industry sector, which involves additional risks, including limited diversification. A fund may invest in small capitalization, mid capitalization and foreign companies, making a fund subject to additional risks. These funds are classified as "non-diversified." A non-diversified fund may invest a larger percentage of its assets in the securities of a smaller number of issuers. As a result, these funds may be more susceptible to the risks associated with these particular companies.

Ranking Criteria: The Morningstar RatingTM is provided for ETFs with at least a three-year history. Ratings are based on the ETF's Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure which accounts for variation in monthly performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. An ETF's risk-adjusted return includes a brokerage commission estimate. PLEASE NOTE, this estimate is subject to change and the actual brokerage commission an investor pays may be higher or lower than this estimate. Morningstar compares each ETF's risk-adjusted return to the open-end mutual fund rating breakpoints for that category.

Consistent with the open-end mutual fund ratings, the top 10% of ETFs 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. The overall rating for an ETF is based on a weighted average of the ETF's 3, 5, and 10 year rating. The determination of an ETF's rating does not affect the retail open end mutual fund data published by Morningstar.