LAZARD ASSET MANAGEMENT LLC

Lazard Asset Management, a private investment manager acting as a subsidiary of its parent company Lazard Freres & Co. LLC, can trace its history back to 1848 when the Lazard brothers launched a general merchandise company called Lazard Freres & Co. The company itself was established in New York as a spin off in 1970. Lazard Asset Management would experience steady growth in its early years, expanding internationally in the 1980s and 1990s. The company would open Lazard Japan Asset Management in Tokyo in 1987, Lazard Asset Management Pacific in Syndney in 1994, and Lazard Asset Management (Canada) in 1996. The company would then combine its UK and US asset management divisions, forming a single entity that could provide a more integrated perspective for its clients. Although its parent company would begin trading publicly in 2005, Lazard Asset Management itself would be an indirect subsidiary of the company and remain private. The company would continue with international expansion in the following years, opening its Hong Kong, Deutschland, and Singapore operating spin off companies in the years 2008, 2011, and 2013, respectively. The company now manages an estimated $180 billion of assets invested in a broad spectrum of assets, which only include the assets that the company itself and further subsidiaries own. Lazard Asset Management values its investment professionals and showcases some of its published investment research on their website. Its investments are mostly focused in emerging market equity, international equity, and global equity, with other notable investment allocations in fixed income, U.S. equity, Asia-Pacific Equity, and European Equity, all in order of decreasing investment asset allocation. Some of its mutual funds include its US Concentrated Portfolio, US Mid Cap Equity Portfolio, International Equity Portfolio, International Strategic Equity Portfolio, Global Total Return & Income Fund, and Retirement Emerging Markets Equity Portfolio, split across its open ended funds, close ended funds, and retirement series funds.