Evergreen Investments on Friday revealed plans to change the name, strategy and investment objective of its Evergreen Large Cap Equity Fund. Effective September 30, the fund will be renamed Evergreen Enhanced 500 Fund. Evergreen also unveiled changes affecting other funds, including the addition of Evergreen International Advisors LLC as subadvisor to the Evergreen Diversified Bond Fund, and a change in the fiscal year end of Evergreen International Balanced Income Fund from October 31 to April 30.

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BOSTON, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Evergreen Investments announced today that the Board of Trustees of the Evergreen Funds approved the following proposals:

-- Name, strategy and investment objective change for Evergreen Large Cap Equity Fund
-- Addition of Evergreen International Advisors LLC as sub-advisor to Evergreen Diversified Bond Fund
-- Increase of the monthly dividend of Evergreen Utilities and High Income Fund
-- Change in the fiscal year end of Evergreen International Balanced Income Fund to October 31 from April 30

Evergreen Large Cap Equity Fund(1)

To differentiate the Fund more effectively among a crowded category, and to describe more clearly the investment approach used to manage the Fund's portfolio, the Board approved a proposal to change the Fund's name to Evergreen Enhanced S&P 500(R) Fund*.

The Fund's investment objective will be to seek total return greater than that of the S&P 500(R) Index. To achieve its objective the Fund will invest, under normal conditions, at least 80 percent of its assets in common stocks of companies included within the S&P 500(R) Index at time of purchase. Up to 20 percent of the Fund's assets may be invested in equity securities of companies not included in the S&P 500(R) Index, including foreign stocks, and in cash or cash equivalents. The Fund's portfolio manager seeks to outperform the S&P 500(R) Index by employing a quantitative investment approach to identify companies with favorable investment characteristics in the areas of valuation, sentiment and quality. In the aggregate, this approach seeks to offer risk characteristics similar to the S&P 500(R) Index, while emphasizing those investment characteristics the portfolio manager considers most likely to lead to performance greater than that of the S&P 500(R) Index.

These changes will be effective September 30, 2007.

Evergreen Diversified Bond Fund(2)

In order to achieve greater investment flexibility consistent with Evergreen Diversified Bond Fund's "core-plus" mandate, the Board approved adding Evergreen International Advisors LLC (EIA) as a sub-advisor to the Fund. EIA manages more than $22 billion (as of March 31, 2007) in a variety of international and global fixed income mandates and is sub-advisor to Evergreen International Bond Fund, Evergreen International Balanced Income Fund and Evergreen Multi-Sector Income Fund. Shareholders of the Fund will have the opportunity to vote on the proposal at a shareholder meeting held at Evergreen Investments' offices, 200 Berkeley St., Boston, MA, on September 21, 2007. If approved, the addition of EIA will be effective October 1, 2007. As previously announced, the Fund's name will change to Evergreen Core Plus Bond Fund effective August 1, 2007.

Evergreen Utilities and High Income Fund(3)

Based on the firm's analysis of Evergreen Utilities and High Income Fund's ability to generate income, the Board approved an increase to the monthly dividend rate from $0.20 per share to $0.23 per share, an increase of approximately 15.0 percent. This rate increases the current distribution yield of the Fund, based on yesterday's closing price of $27.33, to 10.1 percent.

Evergreen International Balanced Income Fund(4)

To maximize Evergreen International Balanced Income Fund's ability to generate net short-term gains within a calendar year, the Board approved changing the Fund's fiscal year end (FYE) to October 31. The Fund's option overlay strategy has the ability to generate net short-term losses that can offset the Fund's ability to generate income from short-term gains. By changing the FYE to October, the portfolio management team has potentially more time to generate the income from short-term gains over the first 10 months of a calendar year.  

Edited by: Armie Margaret Lee


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