Our two closed-end funds, ABC North American Deep-Value and ABC Dirt-Cheap Stock Fund were launched in 2005 and 2006 respectively. The primary objective of these two funds was to search out deep-value small and micro capitalization, North American and overseas companies for insertion in their portfolios. Given that many of these small companies were inappropriate for our three open-end funds due to thin trading/illiquidity, small size and/or bearing a perception of great risk, the closed-end format of these two new funds offered an excellent vehicle for higher risk/higher reward securities.

Since the peak in small capitalization value securities occurred in mid 2006 the next three years were, admittedly, extraordinarily difficult for small cap, deep-value performance. The recent meaningful upturn in the small/micro cap value sector, however, has not only provided for remarkable returns over the past 18 months, but also, has aroused considerable investor interest in these stocks.

Specific examples of high-performing small/micro cap selections within our two closed-end funds include: Fortress Paper, Energold Drilling, High Liner Foods, Twin Butte Energy, Geodrill Limited and Acadian Timber Corporation.

As a result we have extended our abcfunds.com site to include a new feature, “The Dirt-Cheap Stock Detective^®”, a registered trademark of I.A. Michael Investment Counsel Ltd. This offering will periodically provide interesting analytical information on small/micro cap value securities held within our two closed-end funds. Ultimately, it is our hope that “The Dirt-Cheap Stock Detective^®” will inform, highlight and educate our present and prospective clients about our deep value small/micro cap selections as well as the investment modus operandi of our two closed-end funds: ABC North American Deep-Value and ABC Dirt-Cheap Stock Fund.