William Blair International and Emerging Markets Growth Funds have re-opened to new investors as of November 20, 2008.  The drivers behind this decision are the market opportunity, increased liquidity, growth of the non-U.S. investment team and our minimal percentage of total non-U.S. market capitalization.

While considerable uncertainty remains about near term global macroeconomic prospects, the long term market opportunity is remarkable.  Forward P/E ratios for developed and emerging markets are at levels that we have not seen since 1996.  Risk aversion toward emerging markets is extreme.  Broad indexes are at levels similar to 2003. 

Product capacity is a critical point of analysis in our decision to open these strategies.  While non-U.S. market values approximate levels seen at year end 2003, liquidity in these markets has grown dramatically since that time.  Three-month average trading volume for non-U.S. stocks has grown from approximately $50 billion to $120 billion, while the number of stocks has also increased substantially.  This trend is the same in developed and emerging markets.  It is also spread across market capitalizations.  The non-U.S. equity markets have become more liquid and tradable over the last eight years.

The investment team responsible for these strategies has grown from four analysts and portfolio managers in 2003 to twelve in 2008.  We have added experienced analysts and assigned portfolio management responsibilities to the founding members of the team.  We have also built a global research platform organized by sector and focused by market capitalization.  These enhancements allow us to cover more companies and still make effective, purposeful decisions as a closely knit team.  Rest assured that while we are reopening Funds, the investment team will continue to focus its time and energy on researching companies, meeting with company management teams, and constructing portfolios.  The portfolio managers are committed to managing assets for our current clients. 

Our non-U.S. equity assets under management are still a small part of the non-U.S. equity marketplace.  As of September 30 ^th , we managed $19.4 billion.  In every slice of the non-U.S. market capitalization we manage 0.1% or less.  It is clear to us that William Blair & Company can still be nimble and add value for our clients for years to come.  True to our heritage, however, the non-U.S. investment team will continue to monitor capacity closely, in light of changing market conditions. 

William Blair International Growth Fund             William Blair Emerging Markets Growth Fund  

To the extent that your investment is held in a taxable account, please be advised that the Fund has estimated income and capital gain distributions that will be paid on December 19, 2008, to shareholders of record on December 17, 2008.  For more information about these estimated distributions, please visit the Dividends & Capital Gain Distributions section of our Web site.

International investing involves special risk considerations, including currency fluctuations, lower liquidity, economic and political risk.