NEW YORK, Feb. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Dreyfus Corporation (Dreyfus), a BNY Mellon company, announced today that it has launched the Dreyfus Global Emerging Markets Fund, an actively managed, equity mutual fund.  The fund is designed to seek capital appreciation by investing in emerging market countries including those located in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Dreyfus has engaged its affiliate, Newton Capital Management, Ltd., to serve as the fund's sub-adviser. Dreyfus is the fund's investment advisor.

"The current volatility in emerging markets worldwide has created noteworthy opportunities for those investment managers who have a history of emerging markets expertise," said Dreyfus President Charles Cardona. "Newton has more than 20 years of experience investing in emerging markets and emerging market equities.  Newton's dedicated emerging markets core team has built a strong investment track record for its existing emerging market strategies.  Using Newton's distinctive global thematic approach to investing, we are confident Newton will continue to locate emerging markets opportunities."  

Newton employs a fundamental bottom-up investment process that emphasizes quality, including stock fundamentals and balance sheet strength, return on capital employed through the market cycle, and governance prioritizing shareholder interests. The process of identifying investment ideas begins by using a dynamic framework of identifying a core list of investment themes. Newton has currently organized its themes into four main areas of change:  debt, crisis and policy; innovation; energy, environment and infrastructure; and geopolitics and demographics. Newton's themes are based primarily on observable global economic, industrial, or social trends that Newton believes will positively affect certain sectors or industries and cause stocks within these sectors or industries to outperform others.

"As emerging markets equities are currently experiencing increased volatility, we believe there are increased investment opportunities available there for the long-term," said Helena Morrissey CBE, Chief Executive Officer of Newton. "Newton has a long history investing in emerging markets and is delighted to be subadvising the Dreyfus Global Emerging Markets Fund, building on its strong investment record running this strategy  in the UK. The fund seeks to capture the growth available in emerging markets through a high-conviction actively-managed portfolio, which uses Newton's investment themes to guide its long-term approach, together with strong fundamental stock-picking skills to not only find the best companies in which to invest, but also to identify those sectors and industries that are best avoided." 

Robert Marshall-Lee and Sophia Whitbread, CFA are the fund's primary portfolio managers. Mr. Marshall-Lee, the lead portfolio manager, is the investment leader of the emerging markets equities team at Newton, where he has been employed since 1999.  Ms. Whitbread is an investment manager on the emerging markets equities team at Newton, where she was employed from 2005 to 2010 and rejoined in January 2011.

Newton's dedicated Emerging Markets Core Team utilizes the global research team of 29 in identifying the best emerging markets ideas globally.  To pursue its goal, the fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets in common stocks and other equity securities or derivatives in emerging market countries represented in the Morgan Stanley Capital International Emerging Markets Index (MSCI® EM Index), the fund's benchmark index.

The MSCI® EM Index is a free float-adjusted, market-capitalization-weighted index designed to measure the equity performance of emerging market countries located in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. The fund may also invest in frontier markets *. The fund may invest in equity securities of companies with any market capitalization.

Asset allocation and diversification cannot ensure a profit or protect against loss of principal.

Main Risks:

Equity funds are subject generally to market, market sector, market liquidity, issuer, and investment style risks, among other factors, to varying degrees.

Investing internationally involves special risks, including changes in currency exchange rates, political, economic and social instability, a lack of comprehensive company information, differing auditing and legal standards and less market liquidity. These risks are generally greater with emerging market countries than with more economically and politically established foreign countries.

*Frontier markets, which are a subset of emerging markets, generally possess less developed legal, political, business, and social frameworks to support securities markets.  These factors, along with the smaller size and lesser liquidity of these markets, make the equity securities of frontier market companies subject to extreme price volatility.

The use of derivative instruments, such as options, futures and options on futures, forward contracts, swaps, options on swaps, and other credit derivatives, involves risks different from, or possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in the underlying assets. A small investment in derivatives could have a potentially large impact on the fund's performance.

Notes to Editors:

The Dreyfus Corporation, established in 1951 and headquartered in New York City, is one of the nation's leading asset management and distribution companies currently managing more than $290 billion in mutual funds and separately managed accounts.

Newton is a London-based global asset management subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and part of BNY Mellon. With assets under management of more than $85.6 billion (as at 31 December  2013) including assets managed by Newton Investment Management Limited as dual officers of Newton Capital Management Limited and The Bank of New York Mellon, Newton's group of affiliated companies provides a broad range of award-winning investment products and services to individuals, pension funds, charities and corporations. News and other information about Newton is available at www.newton.co.uk or follow us on Twitter @NewtonIM.

BNY Mellon Investment Management is one of the world's leading investment management organizations and one of the top U.S. wealth managers, with $1.6 trillion in assets under management. It encompasses BNY Mellon's affiliated investment management firms, wealth management services and global distribution companies. More information can be found at www.bnymellon.com.

BNY Mellon is a global investments company dedicated to helping its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Whether providing financial services for institutions, corporations or individual investors, BNY Mellon delivers informed investment management and investment services in 35 countries and more than 100 markets. As of December 31, 2013, BNY Mellon had $27.6 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.6 trillion in assets under management. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com, or follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon.

Unless otherwise noted, all information source BNY Mellon as of Dec. 31, 2013. This press release is qualified for issuance in the US only and is for information purposes only. It does not constitute an offer or solicitation of securities or investment services or an endorsement thereof in any jurisdiction or in any circumstance in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful or not authorized. This press release is issued by BNY Mellon Investment Management to members of the financial press and media and the information contained herein should not be construed as investment advice. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. A BNY Mellon Company.

SOURCE Dreyfus; Newton; BNY Mellon