Amana Income Fund Collects Fourth Lipper Award

BELLINGHAM, Wash., March 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Amana Income Fund, managed by Bellingham, Washington-based investment management company Saturna Capital Corporation, received the 2012 Lipper Best Fund Award for superior ten-year performance among 40 funds in Lipper's Equity Income category. The announcement by Lipper at its 2012 Fund Awards Ceremony in New York City on March 8, marks Amana Income Fund's fourth Lipper Best Fund Award since 2007, and recognizes the Fund's consistently strong, risk-adjusted returns over the ten-year period ended December 31, 2011.

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"We would like to thank Lipper once again for this prestigious recognition of the Amana Income Fund. The Lipper Award for ten-year performance is an affirmation of our long-term outlook and conservative investment philosophy at Saturna Capital," said Nicholas Kaiser, portfolio manager of the Amana Funds and Chairman of Saturna Capital.

"Saturna's investment approach delivers consistency and helps investors control risk exposure," Kaiser added. "Accordingly, we balance our offense and defense strategies to minimize losses on the downside. In the Amana Income Fund, we accomplish this by seeking healthy dividends, steady earnings growth, and strong balance sheets that can weather market downturns."

The Amana Income Fund, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, now holds a complete collection of Lipper Best Fund Awards across the three-, five-, and ten-year Equity Income Category performance periods Lipper monitors. In 2007, Amana Income won the Lipper Best Fund Award for the three-year period ended December 31, 2006, among 180 equity income funds. In 2008, Amana Income took home two Lipper Best Fund Awards, for the three-year and five-year periods ended December 31, 2007, among 198 and 135 equity income funds, respectively.

Nicholas Kaiser has been portfolio manager of the Amana Funds since 1990, and has twice been nominated as Morningstar's Domestic-Stock Manager of the Year (2006 and 2008).  He founded Saturna Capital in 1989, and is also its Chairman, Director, and Chief Investment Officer. In addition to the Amana Funds, Kaiser manages Sextant International Fund, Sextant Growth Fund, and private accounts.

The Amana Mutual Fund Trust holds over $3.6 billion in assets in the Amana Income, Amana Growth, and Amana Developing World Funds. The Amana Growth Fund received two Lipper Best Fund Awards in 2009 for performance over the three- and five-year periods ended December 31, 2008, among 392 and 326 funds, respectively, in Lipper's Multi-Cap Growth fund category. The Amana Developing World Fund began operations on September 28, 2009, and is not yet rated or eligible for awards. The Amana Funds are managed according to principles of Islamic finance.

For more information about Saturna Capital Corporation and the mutual funds it advises, visit www.saturna.com, www.amanafunds.com, www.sextantfunds.com, or www.idahotaxexemptfund.com. 

About Saturna

"Values-Based Global Equity Managers"

Saturna Capital Corporation, established in 1989 in Bellingham, Washington, USA, is an investment adviser with over US$4 billion in assets under management, providing investment advisory services to mutual funds, institutions, businesses, individuals, and endowments.

Saturna Capital is adviser to the Amana Mutual Funds (Amana Growth Fund, Amana Income Fund, and Amana Developing World Fund) that follow the principles of Islamic finance.

Saturna Capital is also adviser to the Saturna Investment Trust, consisting of Sextant International, Sextant Growth, Sextant Core, Sextant Bond Income, Sextant Short-Term Bond, and the Idaho Tax-Exempt Fund.

Saturna Sdn. Bhd., located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saturna Capital, specializing in Islamic-compliant investment advisory services for individuals and institutions.

Saturna Capital also has two other wholly-owned subsidiaries: Saturna Brokerage Services, located in Bellingham, Washington, USA, provides general discount brokerage services and distributes Saturna's affiliated mutual funds; and Saturna Trust Company, headquartered in Reno, Nevada, USA, provides trust services to families, charities, trusts, estates, and retirement plans.

Other information:

The Lipper Fund Awards are part of the Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence, a global family of awards that celebrate exceptional performance throughout the professional investment community. The Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence recognize the world's top funds, fund management firms, sell-side firms, research analysts, and investor relations teams. The Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence also include the Extel Survey Awards, the StarMine Analyst Awards, and the StarMine Broker Rankings. For more information, please contact [email protected] or visit excellence.thomsonreuters.com.

The essence of the Lipper Fund awards is to reward consistent out-performance of individual funds and of fund companies. Winning funds have demonstrated consistently strong risk-adjusted returns compared with peers.

Lipper Fund Award Criteria (Cumulative):

• Funds registered for sale in the respective country as of the end of the calendar year of the respective evaluation year.
• At least 36 months of performance history as of the end of the calendar year of the respective evaluation year.
• Lipper global classifications with at least ten distinct portfolios based on the primary share class definition, excluding residual classifications, institutional and other non-retail funds, private, closed-end, exchange-traded, insurance and linked funds.
• Asset classes: equity, bond, and mixed-asset except for absolute Return funds where money market and other fund asset types are considered as well.

Please consider an investment's objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. To obtain a free prospectus or summary prospectus that contains this and other important information about Saturna-advised funds, call toll free 800/SATURNA or visit www.saturna.com. Please read the prospectus or summary prospectus carefully before investing.

Contact: Victoria Odinotska
Kanter & Company
Tel. + 1 703 534 3735
[email protected]

Jane Carten
Saturna Capital Corp.
Tel. +1 360 594 9900

SOURCE Saturna Capital Corporation