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July 16, 2012

Russell offers new value strategy for Australian share portfolios

• Designed to provide more sustainable equity returns

SYDNEY, 16 July, 2012 – Russell Investments has challenged investors to re-think the way they approach value investing in the Australian equity slice of their portfolios with the launch of a new strategy. The Russell Australia Value Premium Strategy (the strategy) is based on a proprietary methodology developed by Russell Investments which aims to systematically capture the value premium, providing investors with more sustainable excess returns in the Australian equity market.

“Value strategies, in other words - identifying companies which have fallen out of favour with the market and look ‘cheap’, are shown to outperform over the investment cycle and can form an important part of a multi-asset portfolio,” said Symon Parish, Australasian Chief Investment Officer for Russell Investments. “This strategy will give our clients a new way to access a risk-controlled, systematic value exposure.”

The strategy aims to meet or exceed the average return of Australian active value managers. The value exposure is focused on large companies and is captured by taking companies in the Russell Australia Large Cap Index and ranking them based on their overall value characteristics. These rankings are then used to build a large capitalisation value portfolio of typically 40-50 securities.

Initially the strategy will be used to form part of the value component for a selection of Russell’s Australian share funds, namely; the Russell Australian Shares Fund, the Russell After-Tax Australian  Shares Fund (for Superannuation Investors), and the Russell Australian Shares Tracker Fund. It will also be available to third party institutional clients as a complement to traditional value managers in a multi-manager / multi-strategy portfolio.

“We’ve been developing this strategy for some time and we believe it is an innovative, outcome oriented tool to help provide more sustainable, consistent returns in the equity component of a portfolio,” Mr Parish concluded.

About Russell Investments

Russell Investments (Russell) is a global asset manager and one of only a few firms that offers actively managed, multi-asset portfolios and services that include advice, investments and implementation. Working with institutional investors, financial advisors and individuals, Russell’s core capabilities extend across capital markets insights, manager research, Indexes, portfolio implementation and portfolio construction.

Russell has approximately $155 billion in assets under management (as of 3/31/2012) and works with 2,400 institutional clients, more than 580 independent distribution partners and advisors, and individual investors globally. As a consultant to some of the largest pools of capital in the world, Russell has $2.4 trillion in assets under advisement (as of 12/31/11). It has four decades of experience researching and selecting investment managers and meets annually with more than 2,200 managers around the world. Russell traded more than $1.5 trillion in 2011 through its implementation services business. Russell calculates more than 80,000 benchmarks daily covering 98 percent of the investable market globally, 85 countries and more than 10,000 securities. Approximately $3.9 trillion in assets are benchmarked to the Russell Indexes.

Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA, Russell has offices in around the world including Amsterdam, Auckland, Beijing, Chicago, Dubai, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, London, Melbourne, Milan, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto. For more information about how Russell helps to improve financial security for people, visit www.russell.com/au or follow us on Twitter @RussellInvestAU.

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Issued by Russell Investment Management Ltd ABN 53 068 338 974, AFS Licence 247185 (“RIM”). This document provides general information only and has not been prepared having regard to your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision, you need to consider whether this information is appropriate to your objectives, financial situation and needs. This information has been compiled from sources considered to be reliable, but is not guaranteed. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Any potential investor should consider the latest Product Disclosure Statement (“PDS”) in deciding whether to acquire, or to continue to hold, an investment in any Russell product. The PDS can be obtained by visiting www.russell.com.au or by phoning (02) 9229 5111. RIM is part of Russell Investments (“Russell”). Russell or its associates, officers or employees may have interests in the financial products referred to in this information by acting in various roles including broker or adviser, and may receive fees, brokerage or commissions for acting in these capacities. In addition, Russell or its associates, officers or employees may buy or sell the financial products as principal or agent.

Copyright 2012 Russell Investments. All rights reserved.

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