The fund giant today announced lans to unveil "a new brand and visual identity that represents the firm's strategy to leverage its innovative heritage and support its mission to turn its unconventional wisdom into value for investors."
According to the company, "the new look reveals a modernized retail brand, which will continue to be known as OppenheimerFunds, and a new institutional brand, OFI Global Asset Management. The brands will be unveiled onMay 1, 2013, across many of the firm's communications platforms."
"The modernization of our brand is the culmination of the last five years of work to redefine what investors can expect from an asset manager," said Bill Glavin , Chief Executive Officer of OppenheimerFunds, in a statement. "The new look and feel demonstrates our belief in providing greater transparency for investors that operate in an increasingly multidimensional world, and acknowledges that it is no longer enough for asset management firms to simply view the world through the lens of our own industry."
Moreover, "In addition to the OppenheimerFunds rebrand, we have also renamed our institutional business OFI Global Asset Management," stated Glavin. "We have been helping many of the world's most prestigious institutions find the right way to invest for the last 50 years, and recent additions to our institutional offering have made this the opportune time to change our name to more appropriately reflect the strength and global expertise we bring to these sophisticated institutional investors."
Here is the press release:
Company Press Release
OppenheimerFunds Unveils Modernized Retail and New Institutional Brand
NEW YORK, April 29, 2013 -- OppenheimerFunds, Inc. (OFI) today announced plans to unveil a new brand and visual identity that represents the firm's strategy to leverage its innovative heritage and support its mission to turn its unconventional wisdom into value for investors. The new look reveals a modernized retail brand, which will continue to be known as OppenheimerFunds, and a new institutional brand, OFI Global Asset Management. The brands will be unveiled onMay 1, 2013, across many of the firm's communications platforms.
"The modernization of our brand is the culmination of the last five years of work to redefine what investors can expect from an asset manager," said Bill Glavin , Chief Executive Officer of OppenheimerFunds. "The new look and feel demonstrates our belief in providing greater transparency for investors that operate in an increasingly multidimensional world, and acknowledges that it is no longer enough for asset management firms to simply view the world through the lens of our own industry."
"In addition to the OppenheimerFunds rebrand, we have also renamed our institutional business OFI Global Asset Management," continued Glavin. "We have been helping many of the world's most prestigious institutions find the right way to invest for the last 50 years, and recent additions to our institutional offering have made this the opportune time to change our name to more appropriately reflect the strength and global expertise we bring to these sophisticated institutional investors."
OppenheimerFunds will continue to provide advisory services to the Oppenheimer mutual funds. OFI Global Asset Management will provide institutional clients with access to many of OppenheimerFunds' existing investment strategies including in-depth counsel and strategic allocation services. In support of the company's mission – "to turn unconventional wisdom into value for investors" – the new brand identity represents a culmination of extensive internal evaluation and new initiatives, including:
An expansion of the firm's alternatives platform, most recently through the acquisition of leading alternative investment manager SteelPath
The creation of a CIO, Asset Allocation position, recently filled by Mark Hamilton , to lead the firm's development of multi-asset products and solutions for investors looking to address specific client needs, rather than component parts
Distinctive thought leadership, syndicated through multiple channels, ensuring clients have access when and how they like
A new investment framework, The New 60/40
The evolution of the firm's distribution model, now focused on using a more consultative approach while embracing technology to best serve the needs of today's more sophisticated buyer
A commitment to being a digital market leader by fully embracing and leveraging digital, mobile and social channels to provide increased access to the company's investment professionals
"We have gone through a dramatic transformation over the past five years—a reflection of our commitment to enhancing the client experience by providing sophisticated solutions to both retail and institutional investors," said Glavin. "The rebrand embodies our ability to embrace and initiate change. Our investors are clearly seeing the benefits of those changes, as our assets under management have reached levels not seen since before 2008, and our funds have consistently been recognized by industry experts like Barron's and Lipper."
OppenheimerFunds' new corporate logos reveal a new multidimensional and transparent evolution of the renowned "four hands" that come together in a grip formation signifying strength and partnership.
The Evolution – Still The Right Way to Invest
?For more than a half century, OppenheimerFunds has embraced an investment culture that has benefited our clients' portfolios, is sustainable and reflects our commitment to clients and investors through high conviction active management. Today, the OppenheimerFunds family of products boasts terrific growth and strong investment results, with 16 best-in-class awards by Lipper in 20131 and ranking sixth out of 62 fund families in Barron's Best Fund Families List for 2012, based on 2012 performance.2
While the brand has been refreshed, it will not change the four core beliefs that lie at the heart of OFI's investment culture: active management delivers better outcomes; independent investment boutiques lead to better ideas; a global perspective is critical and portfolio management is best supported by independent risk management oversight.
"Our strength is in high alpha, active management and our investment platform remains focused on investing in solutions that put our clients first and delivering innovative investment thought leadership," said Art Steinmetz , Chief Investment Officer at OppenheimerFunds.
About OppenheimerFunds
?OppenheimerFunds, Inc. (OFI) is one of the largest and most reputable investment management firms in the country. Since the original Oppenheimer fund was first offered to the public in 1959, OFI has demonstrated it is a high conviction asset manager with a history of providing innovative investment strategies to its investors. OFI and its subsidiaries offer a broad array of products and services to individuals, institutional investors and corporations worldwide. OFI provides advisory services to the Oppenheimer mutual funds, and OFI Global Asset Management provides services to institutional clients. OFI, including its subsidiaries, managed more than $208 billion in assets for over 12 million shareholder accounts, including sub-accounts, as ofMarch 31, 2013.
These views represent the opinions of OppenheimerFunds, Inc. and are not intended as investment advice or to predict or depict performance of any investment. These views are subject to change based on subsequent developments.
1 Lipper Awards are granted annually to the funds in each Lipper classification that achieve the highest score for Consistent Return, a measure of funds' historical risk-adjusted returns, measured in local currency, relative to peers. Winners are selected using the Lipper Leader rating for Consistent Return for funds with at least 36 months of performance history as of 11/30/12. Awards are presented for the highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return within each eligible classification over 3, 5 or 10 years. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
2 Source: Lipper/Barron's survey "Best Mutual Fund Families," published February 9, 2013. For the 2012 award period. The Barron's/Lipper Best Fund Families survey identified and ranked 62 fund families (from Lipper's universe of 1,958 fund families) that had at least three funds in Lipper's general U.S. stock category, one world equity fund (global or international), one mixed-equity fund, two taxable bond funds and one tax-exempt bond fund in 2012. Lipper calculated each fund's net total return for the year ended December 31, 2012, and adjusted those returns for 12b-1 fees in 2012, without considering sales charges. Each fund in the survey was given a preliminary percentile ranking in its category. That ranking measured how a fund compared with its peer "universe," as tracked by Lipper, not just the funds in the survey. Individual fund scores were then multiplied by the 2012 weighting of their general classification. Those fund scores were then totaled, creating an overall score and ranking for each fund family in each category. OppenheimerFunds ranked 6/62, 30/53 and 18/46 for the one, five and ten year periods, respectively, ending 12/31/12. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Fixed income investing entails credit risks and interest rate risks. When interest rates rise, bond prices generally fall, and the fund's share price can fall. Foreign investments may be volatile and involve additional expenses and special risks, including currency fluctuations, foreign taxes and political and economic uncertainties. Emerging and developing market investments may be especially volatile. A portion of a municipal bond fund's distributions may be subject to tax and may increase taxes for investors subject to Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Capital gains distributions are taxable as capital gains. Diversification does not guarantee profit or protect against loss.
Shares of mutual funds are not deposits or obligations of any bank, are not guaranteed by any bank, are not insured by the FDIC or any other agency, and involve investment risks, including the possible loss of the principal amount invested.
Before investing in any of the Oppenheimer funds, investors should carefully consider a fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Fund prospectuses and summary prospectuses contain this and other information about the funds, and may be obtained by asking your financial advisor, visiting oppenheimerfunds.com, or calling 1.800.525.7048. Read prospectuses and summary prospectuses carefully before investing.
Oppenheimer funds are distributed by OppenheimerFunds Distributor, Inc. Two World Financial Center, 225 Liberty Street, New York, NY, 10281
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