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Alliance Korean Investment Fund
Press Release
(Dec. 18, 2000)
The Korean Investment Fund, Inc. announced that its Board of Directors has approved and recommended for stockholder approval the conversion of the Fund from a closed-end investment company to an open-end investment company. The Fund is managed by Alliance Capital Management L.P., a leading global investment adviser.
As of December 15, 2000, the Fund's total net assets were approximately $48 million, its net asset value per share was $6.50 and its closing price on the New York Stock Exchange was $5.125, representing a discount to net asset value of 21.15%.
On April 15, 2000, the Fund announced that its Board of Directors had approved a discretionary program for the repurchase by the Fund of its own shares for the purposes of enhancing stockholder values and reducing the discount. The Fund thereafter repurchased a total of 1,001,800 shares of Common Stock, representing 11.85% of the 8,450,704 shares outstanding on April 24, 2000 at a total cost of $6,540,677 and an average price of $6.53 per share. Repurchases under the program added $0.38 per share, representing 5.8%, to the Fund's December 15, 2000 net asset value per share.
Commenting on Alliance's decision to recommend open-ending to the Fund's Board of Directors, John D. Carifa, President and Chief Operating Officer of Alliance and Chairman of the Fund, stated that "while the share repurchases provided significant antidilutive benefit to the Fund's stockholders, they did not improve the Fund's discount performance. We recognize that the Fund, unlike many closed-end country funds, possesses sufficient portfolio liquidity to sustain, without significant dilutive market impact, the portfolio downsizing which open-ending is likely to cause in the short run. In view of our appreciation of the long-term investment merit of the Korean market, we concluded, and the Board of Directors agreed, that it would be in the best interests of the Fund and its stockholders for the Fund to take its place among the open-end Alliance Mutual Funds."
The Fund's Board also took action to schedule a Special Meeting of Stockholders to be held on March 19, 2001. If the stockholders then approve the Fund's conversion to open-end status, stockholders will soon thereafter be able to redeem their shares at net asset value, less a temporary redemption fee of 2% of the net asset value of shares outstanding on the conversion date that are redeemed, or exchanged for shares of other Alliance-managed funds, during the first twelve months after the conversion. The redemption fee will be paid entirely to the Fund and thus will provide an antidilutive net asset value benefit to stockholders. Upon the conversion, the Fund will then begin a continuous public offering of the four classes of shares that are offered by other equity-oriented Alliance-managed mutual funds, and the Fund's shares will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
This page was last updated on August 1, 2001.