Business & Finance
Business and Finance
Business and Finance
Fri, January 2, 2009
Wed, December 31, 2008 Global High Income Fund Inc. " Distribution Characteristics for December 2008 and Updated Revised Distribution Characteristics
NEW YORK--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Global High Income Fund Inc. (the "Fund") (NYSE: GHI), a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company seeking high current income and secondarily, capital appreciation through investments primarily in securities of emerging market debt issuers, today announced its distribution characteristics for the month of December 2008.
On December 15, 2008, the Fund's Board of Directors declared a regular monthly distribution of $0.0753 per share. This distribution is payable on December 31, 2008 to shareholders of record as of December 26, 2008. The ex-dividend date was December 23, 2008.
The Fund adopted a managed distribution policy in December 1999, which was revised in May 2005. Pursuant to the policy as currently in effect, the Fund makes regular monthly distributions at an annualized rate equal to 9% of the Fund's net asset value, as determined as of the last day on which the New York Stock Exchange is open for trading during the first week of that month. The Fund's Board will reassess no less frequently than annually the annualized percentage of net assets at which the Fund's monthly distributions will be made. The Fund's Board may change or terminate the managed distribution policy at any time; any such change or termination may have an adverse effect on the market price for the Fund's shares.
To the extent that the Fund's taxable income in any fiscal year exceeds the aggregate amount distributed based on a fixed percentage of its net asset value, the Fund would make an additional distribution in the amount of that excess near the end of the fiscal year. To the extent that the aggregate amount distributed by the Fund based on a fixed percentage of its net asset value exceeds its current and accumulated earnings and profits, the amount of that excess would constitute a return of capital or net realized capital gains for tax purposes.
Based on information available at this time, the Fund estimates that net investment income, excluding short-term capital gains, is the source of approximately 100% of the December distribution of $0.0753 per share. Additionally, for the Fund's current fiscal period which began on November 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008, it is currently estimated that net investment income is the source of approximately 100% of your regular monthly aggregate distributions of $0.1511 per share. These are only estimates, however, and are subject to change.
The actual sources of the Fund's distributions may be net investment income, net realized capital gains, return of capital or a combination of the foregoing and may be subject to retroactive recharacterization at the end of the Fund's fiscal year based on tax regulations. The actual amounts attributable to each of these sources will be reported to shareholders in January 2009 on Form 1099-DIV.
In previous 2008 month-end press releases similar to this one, the Fund provided estimated information regarding the sources of its monthly distributions. Previous Fund press releases and shareholder notices indicated that prior 2008 distributions were estimated to be sourced from a combination of net investment income, long-term or short-term capital gains, and return of capital. The Fund recently determined to reclassify certain distributions made earlier this year in connection with excise tax requirements. In connection with the finalization of the Fund's financial statements the Fund has reclassified the sources of the distributions made in January 2008 through October 2008 from certain various percentages of net investment income, long-term or short-term capital gains, and/or return of capital noted in previous disclosures, to the following: for each distribution declared for January 2008 through October 2008, $0.032 of each such monthly distribution has been reclassified as a return of capital with the remainder characterized as net investment income and/or capital gains; aggregate characteristics for the 2008 distributions will be indicated on Form 1099-DIV. This information also supersedes the revised distribution characteristics information contained in the Fund's December 15, 2008 press release which had been prepared before the Fund's annual report had been finalized. This reclassification does not change the amount of the distributions that had been paid, only their estimated characteristics.
As of November 30, 2008, the Fund had estimated distributions in excess of net investment income of $844,137.
