Janus Capital is preparing a marketing push for early 2005. As part of the effort the Denver-based fund firm will launch two new funds -- Janus Explorer fund and Janus Research fund -- in late February. The funds will be its only launches since 2001.

The plans for the funds were disclosed in a recent SEC filing.

The push comes after more than a year during which Janus played defense after being accused of allowing hedge fund investors to market time its funds. Those allegations led to a settlement with regulators and the resignations of a number of senior executives, including CEO Mark Whiston.

The launch of the new funds is one of the initial moves the new management at Janus that includes new CEO and ex-Schwabbie Steve Scheid and new CIO Gary Black.

The two no-load funds will launch on February 25 and Janus Capital is waiving some fees for a year until March 1, 2006. The funds carry a minimum $2,500 initial investment.

Explorer will invest in small and mid-cap stocks and lists the Russell 2500 Growth Index as its bogey. Long-term, it will carry total expenses of 119 basis points, including a 64 bp management fee. Ron Sachs, vice president, is the portfolio manager for the fund.

James P. Goff, director of Research, is the lead portfolio manager for the Research Fund that will invest across sectors in stocks that hold special promise. The fund will carry an expense ratio of 147 bps including its 64 bp management fee. For the first year Janus will wave 22 basis points of its fee.

The prospectus also includes an "excessive trading" policies section that points out to potential shareholders that although "the Fund will take reasonable steps to attempt to detect and deter excessive trading ... [it] ... may not be able to identify all instances of excessive trading."  

Edited by: Sean Hanna, Editor in Chief


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