John Hancock launches Strategic Growth, Global Absolute Return funds

By Toni Weeks

San Diego, Jan. 9 - John Hancock announced in a press release on Monday the launch of two new funds, the John Hancock Strategic Growth Fund and the John Hancock Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund.

Both are now available to investors through their financial advisers.

The Strategic Growth Fund, which will trade under the symbol "JSGAX," will seek long-term capital appreciation. Under normal conditions, it will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities of large-capitalization companies and up to 20% of its total assets in equity securities of foreign issuers through American Depositary Receipts and other similar investments. The fund's investment team will use a five-step approach to select companies with earnings growth rate and sustainability that it believes are underestimated.

The subadviser to the fund, providing portfolio management services, is the U.S. Large Cap Growth team at John Hancock Asset Management. The team is led by Shannon Reid and includes Jay Zelko, David M. Chow and Curtis Ifill.

The Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund will trade under the symbol "JHAAX" as a stand-alone fund and will also be a component of the John Hancock Alternative Asset Allocation Fund and other John Hancock Lifestyle Funds.

Edinburgh-based Standard Life Investments was chosen as the subadviser to the fund. The portfolio managers will include Euan Munro, Guy Stern and David Millar.

The fund will use a range of investment strategies and invest in a wide spectrum of U.S. and foreign equity securities of various market capitalizations and fixed-income securities, including high-yield securities, as well as derivative instruments in pursuing its investment objective. It may invest in emerging as well as developed markets and may invest a significant portion of its assets in the securities of companies in particular economic sectors. Under normal conditions, at least 40% of the fund's net assets will be invested in or exposed to obligations of issuers located outside of the United States.

"The allocation to Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund within our fund-of-funds is designed to further diversify those funds' asset allocation mix to include strategies that attempt to provide uncorrelated returns and lower volatility compared to the broader market," Bob Boyda, senior portfolio manager and head of Global Asset Allocation for John Hancock's Portfolio Solutions Group, said in the release.

The fund's subadviser will seek to achieve total return by selecting a diversified global portfolio that makes use of multiple strategies across various asset classes, aiming to exploit market cyclicality and a diverse array of inefficiencies across and within global markets to maximize risk-adjusted absolute return. The derivative instruments may include futures, options, swaps, including credit default and variance swaps, and foreign-currency forward contracts.

Boston-based John Hancock Investment Management Services, LLC is the investment adviser to both funds.

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