Full Circle Advisors, LLC Announces Launch of The BDC Income Fund

Full Circle Advisors, LLC (“Full Circle Advisors”) has announced the launch of The BDC Income Fund (the “Fund”), an open-end mutual fund which will primarily invest in equity securities of publicly-traded Business Development Companies (BDCs) and intends to make quarterly distributions to investors. The Fund’s investment strategy will primarily focus on income-oriented BDCs, providing investors access to the BDC sector with the benefit of daily liquidity and active professional management.

BDCs, which were created by Congress in 1980 to increase the flow of capital to small and mid-sized U.S. businesses, are Regulated Investment Companies that are required to distribute at least 90% of their taxable income to investors. While the majority of BDCs primarily originate loans to privately-held, middle market U.S. businesses, some also make equity investments and invest in other asset classes, such as broadly syndicated loans and the equity and debt tranches of Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs). Similar to REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and MLPs (Master Limited Partnerships), BDCs that distribute all of their taxable income are not taxed at the corporate level.

“We believe the BDC sector offers the opportunity for attractive long-term risk-adjusted returns. The sector should be particularly appealing to income-oriented investors,” said Gregg Felton, Managing Member and Chief Investment Officer of Full Circle Advisors. “We expect the Fund to capitalize on the positive features of this market, including higher yields and better credit structures that are available in private credit instruments as compared with broadly syndicated credit investments. In addition, since credit-focused BDCs typically structure their investments as floating rate loans, we believe the Fund will be relatively well positioned in the event of a significant rise in interest rates.”

“There are a number of factors which affect a BDC’s performance that are not always appreciated or understood by investors,” said Andrew Kerai, Lead Portfolio Manager of The BDC Income Fund. “While the sector has been growing materially in recent years, we believe it is still significantly under-appreciated. The lack of institutional presence in the market often creates attractive opportunities for astute investors, in our view. We believe our unique understanding of the BDC market should allow us to identify attractive relative value opportunities, capitalize on market inefficiencies, and generate higher risk-adjusted returns for the Fund’s investors compared with a passive investment strategy. Our research and analytics are proprietary and we apply a rigorous, bottom-up analysis when performing due diligence on potential investments.”

The Fund’s portfolio will be managed by Andrew Kerai, who was previously a sell-side research analyst at National Securities Corp. (OTCQB: NHLD) covering the BDC sector and a research associate at Janney Montgomery Scott, where Mr. Kerai covered the specialty finance sector. Prior to his career in sell-side research, Mr. Kerai was a portfolio analyst at Prudential Investments (NYSE: PRU) on the high yield bonds and leveraged loans team. The Fund’s management team also includes Gregg Felton, a former Partner at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) who was founder and Chief Investment Officer of Liberty Harbor, an alternative credit business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and John Stuart, who founded both Full Circle Advisors in 2010 and the predecessor company to Full Circle Advisors in 2005.

About The BDC Income Fund

The BDC Income Fund is an open-end mutual fund which became effective in November 2014. The Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets in the equity securities of publicly-traded Business Development Companies (BDCs) and may also invest up to 20% of its net assets in other opportunistic investments, including the debt securities of BDCs and the equity and debt securities of other income-oriented investment companies registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The Fund is managed by Full Circle Advisors, LLC, and is a series of Forum Funds II, a series trust overseen by Atlantic Fund Services, LLC. For additional information, please visit the Fund’s website at www.bdcincomefund.com.

The Fund offers three share classes:

INSTITUTIONAL SHARES (IBDCX)
A SHARES (ABDCX)
C SHARES (NBDCX)

About Full Circle Advisors, LLC

Full Circle Advisors, LLC, based in Greenwich, CT, is a registered investment advisor organized in 2010 with the purpose of providing yield-oriented, current income investment solutions to investors.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements which relate to future events or The BDC Income Fund’s future performance or financial condition. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (including statements containing the words “believes,” “should,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates” and similar expressions) should also be considered to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, condition or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in The BDC Income Fund’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The BDC Income Fund undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made herein.

Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. For a prospectus with this and other information about the Fund, please call 844-786-4178 (toll free) or visit our website at www.bdcincomefund.com. Read the prospectus carefully before investing.

There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. An investment in the Fund is subject to risk, including the possible loss of principal amount invested. The Fund primarily invests in securities issued by publicly-traded BDCs. As a result, the Fund’s portfolio may be significantly affected by the performance of the BDCs in which it invests and the performance of the BDCs’ portfolio companies, as well as the overall economic environment. The types of portfolio companies in which BDCs invest are generally considered to be non-rated or below investment grade. The revenues, income (or losses) and valuations of these companies can, and often do, fluctuate suddenly and dramatically, and they face considerable risk of loss. BDCs often borrow funds to make investments and, as a result, are exposed to the risks of leverage. Leverage magnifies the potential loss on amounts invested and therefore increases the risks associated with an investment in a BDC’s securities. Externally-managed BDCs’ management fees, which may be substantially higher than the management fees charged to other funds, are normally payable on gross assets, including those assets acquired through the use of leverage. General interest rate fluctuations may have a substantial negative impact on an underlying BDC’s investments and investment opportunities and, therefore may have a material adverse effect on the BDC’s investment objectives and rate of return on invested capital. Due to original issue discount the BDC may be required to make a distribution to its stockholders in order to satisfy the annual distribution requirement. As a result, the BDC may have difficulty meeting the annual distribution requirement necessary to obtain and maintain RIC tax treatment under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). Portions of the distributions that a BDC makes may represent a return of capital to its underlying investors for tax purposes. A return of capital generally is a return of the investor’s investment rather than a return of earnings or gains derived from the BDC’s investment activities and will be made after deduction of the fees and expenses payable in connection with the initial offering, including any fees payable to the BDC’s manager. The Fund is newly-formed. Accordingly, investors in the Fund bear the risk that the Fund’s Adviser may not be successful in implementing the Fund’s investment strategy, and may not employ a successful investment strategy, any of which could result in the Fund being liquidated at any time without shareholder approval and at a time that may not be favorable for all shareholders. Such liquidation could have negative tax consequences for shareholders. The Fund is non-diversified. Performance of a non-diversified fund may be more volatile than performance of a diversified fund.

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