27 May 2020

New York, New York. Artisan Partners announced today that Artisan Thematic Fund has become Artisan Focus Fund. The Fund is managed by the Artisan Partners Thematic Team, led by portfolio manager Chris Smith, who joined Artisan Partners in October 2016 to found the team. Chris has a wealth of experience in managing focused long and long/short portfolios and since the team’s founding he has built a highly capable and talented group of investors.

The new name highlights the team’s dedicated focus on its process. Mr. Smith explained, "We believe the new name better reflects our existing approach to idea generation and bottom-up investing." Regarding the three-year anniversary, Mr. Smith also noted, "Since its launch in April 2017, Artisan Focus Fund has established a strong record of creating value and delivering quality performance results."

Artisan Partners CEO, Eric Colson, added, "Artisan Focus Fund’s third anniversary, is a fitting time to shift to a name that better suits the team's process and focus. Chris and his team take a unique approach to thematic idea generation. While themes are certainly a key component of their philosophy, they aren't its defining feature. Chris's decision to change the Fund's name should allow him to better represent his team's overarching goal—which is focused on identifying inflection points in multiyear trends that are often misunderstood by the markets."

Investment Risks: A non-diversified portfolio may invest a larger portion of assets in securities of a smaller number of issuers and performance of a single issuer may affect overall portfolio performance greater than in a diversified portfolio. The portfolio’s use of derivative instruments may create additional leverage and involve risks different from, or greater than, the risks associated with investing in more traditional investments. High portfolio turnover may adversely affect returns due to increased transaction costs and creation of additional tax consequences. Securities of small- and medium-sized companies tend to have a shorter history of operations, be more volatile and less liquid and may have underperformed securities of large companies during some periods. International investments involve special risks, including currency fluctuation, lower liquidity, different accounting methods and economic and political systems, and higher transaction costs. These risks typically are greater in emerging markets.

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