Northern Trust Shutters Exchange Traded Shares Fund Family

January 27, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Northern Trust announced today the scheduled closing of Northern Exchange Traded Shares (NETS) , as of February 20, 2009.
A Northern Trust news release said NETS Trust Board of Trustees’ considered current market conditions, the inability of the funds to attract significant market interest since their inception, their future viability, as well as prospects for growth in the funds’ assets in the foreseeable future.

The NETS Trust Board of Trustees’ decision was made after consultation with Northern Trust Investments, N.A., the investment adviser to the 17 funds, which had approximately $33 million in assets as of December 31, 2008 and are traded on NYSE Arca. The funds were launched in 2008 and are designed to track international, single-country benchmarks.

February 9, 2009, is scheduled to be the last day of trading for the shares of the funds, the company said.

Investors holding shares in the funds after the delisting date will receive a cash distribution equal to the net asset value of their shares as determined on February 20, pursuant to the Funds’ valuation policies.

Shareholders receiving this cash distribution will not incur transaction fees in connection with this distribution or the cancellation of their shares in the funds, Northern Trust said.

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