BOSTON, June 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Global Shareholder Yield Fund declared its quarterly dividend today as follows:
Declaration date: June 2, 2008 Ex-dividend date: June 9, 2008 Record date: June 11, 2008 Payment date: June 30, 2008 Distribution amount: $0.4500
This dividend equates to an annualized yield of 10.59 percent, based on the fund's closing market price as of May 30, 2008.
The John Hancock Global Shareholder Yield Fund is a newly organized, diversified, closed-end fund. The Fund's investment objective is to provide a high level of total return consisting of a high level of current income and gains and long term capital appreciation. The Fund will seek to achieve favorable after-tax returns for its shareholders by seeking to minimize the federal income tax consequences on income and gains generated by the Fund. Under normal market condition, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its total assets in a diversified portfolio of dividend-paying stocks of issuers located throughout the world. The Fund also intends to write call options on a variety of both U.S. and non-U.S. broad-based indices.
About Manulife Financial and John Hancock
The Boston-based mutual fund business unit of John Hancock Financial Services, John Hancock Funds manages more than $54.1 billion in open-end funds, closed-end funds, private accounts, retirement plans and related party assets for individual and institutional investors at March 31, 2008. John Hancock Funds are distributed by John Hancock Funds, LLC, member FINRA. For more information, please visit http://www.jhfunds.com/.
John Hancock is a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading Canadian-based financial services group serving millions of customers in 19 countries and territories worldwide. Operating as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia, and primarily through John Hancock in the United States, the Company offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$400 billion (US$389 billion) as of March 31, 2008. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '0945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at http://www.manulife.com/.
