David Albrycht Joins Virtus Investment Partners

HARTFORD, Conn., June 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTS), which operates a multi-manager asset management business, today announced that David L. Albrycht has joined the company in a new position as chief investment officer, Multi-Sector Fixed Income Strategies, at a newly established affiliate, Newfleet Asset Management.  Virtus has also hired other investment professionals of the team that has supported Albrycht in managing approximately $5.2 billion of Virtus' fixed income assets.

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The team includes portfolio management and research professionals who have been responsible for the Virtus Multi-Sector Short Term Bond Fund (Class A: NARAX), the Virtus Multi-Sector Fixed Income Fund (Class A: NAMFX), the Senior Floating Rate Fund (Class A: PSFRX), and other Virtus assets.  The Virtus Multi-Sector Short Term Bond Fund, which Albrycht has managed since 1993, is the company's largest mutual fund with $4.2 billion in assets and has been ranked in the top decile for performance among its Lipper peer group for the 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year periods ending April 29, 2011.

Virtus established Newfleet as a comprehensive fixed income investment management firm by bringing together Albrycht and his Multi Sector team with other existing fixed income capabilities.  Newfleet manages more than $8.0 billion of fixed income assets for individual and institutional clients in three distinct strategies: Multi-Sector, Core Plus, and Specialty.

"Dave and his team have been an important part of our organization for more than 18 years and during that time they have delivered consistently strong relative performance for our clients.  He is a respected fixed income manager in this space, and having him and the team join as one of our affiliated managers is a great opportunity for us and our clients," said George R. Aylward, president and chief executive officer of Virtus.

"Virtus is the right home for me because I can continue to manage client's assets within a boutique asset management culture that is part of a dynamic, growing organization," Albrycht said.  "As a part of Virtus, the Multi-Sector team can focus on our objective of generating superior investment returns and serving clients with the support of Virtus' strong distribution and business platform.  We look forward to maintaining the same disciplined investment approach that has in the past positioned the multi-sector funds at the top of their peer groups."

"Dave and his team share our dedication to delivering institutional-style investment performance to clients, including investors of our most popular mutual fund," Aylward said.  "The addition of the Multi-Sector team expands our proprietary investment management capabilities and is consistent with our strategy of providing an attractive environment for high-quality investment teams.  This environment allows teams to leverage Virtus' resources to best serve current and future clients and gives us the opportunity to grow our business and expand operating margins."

Albrycht has been recognized by industry groups as a leading multi-sector fixed income strategist, and funds he manages have received several Lipper Analytical awards.  He has appeared on CNBC and Bloomberg Television and has been quoted or featured in numerous publications, including Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Dow Jones and Investment News.  Virtus' fixed income management capabilities were honored earlier this year in Barron's "Best Fund Families" annual rankings when the company was recognized as having the best taxable bond fund family, which was led by the multi-sector funds managed by Albrycht.

Prior to joining Virtus, Albrycht was executive managing director and senior portfolio manager of Goodwin Capital Advisers, an investment management company that previously was a subsidiary of Virtus.  He started as a credit analyst in 1985 and became a portfolio manager in 1991.  He earned a B.A., cum laude, from Central Connecticut State University and an M.B.A. with honors from the University of Connecticut.  He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

About Virtus Investment Partners

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ: VRTS) is a distinctive partnership of boutique investment managers singularly committed to the long-term success of individual and institutional investors.  The company provides investment management products and services through its affiliated managers and select subadvisers, each with a distinct investment style, autonomous investment process and individual brand.  Virtus Investment Partners offers access to a variety of investment styles across multiple disciplines to meet a wide array of investor needs.  Additional information can be found at www.virtus.com.

Virtus Multi-Sector Short Term Bond Fund rankings in the Lipper Short-Intermediate Investment Grade Debt Fund peer group: 1 year: 4/153; 3 years: 1/141; 5 years: 7/135; and 10 years: 2/106.  Lipper ranks the funds based on the total return as of April 29, 2011.  Each fund is ranked within a universe of funds similar in portfolio characteristics and capitalization. Rankings do not include the effect of a fund's sales load.  Lipper ranking is for Class A shares only, other classes may have different performance characteristics.  Lipper, Inc. is a nationally recognized organization that ranks the performance of mutual funds.

Please carefully consider the Virtus Mutual Funds' investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing.  For this and other information about the Virtus Mutual Funds, call 1-800-243-4361 or visit Virtus.com for a prospectus.  Read it carefully before you invest or send money.

Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Risk Factors. Investing internationally, especially in emerging markets, involves additional risks such as currency, political, accounting, economic and market risk.  Investing in high yield bonds may subject the portfolio to greater credit and market risks.  As interest rates rise, existing bond prices fall and can cause the value of an investment in the portfolio to decline. Changes in interest rates will affect the value of longer-term fixed income securities more than shorter-term securities. The principal on mortgage- or asset-backed securities may normally be prepaid at any time, which will reduce the yield and market value of these securities.

Mutual Funds are distributed by VP Distributors, Inc., member FINRA and subsidiary of Virtus Investment Partners, Inc.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains statements that are, or may be considered to be, forward-looking statements.  All statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our beliefs or expectations, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  These statements may be identified by such forward-looking terminology as "expect," "estimate," "plan," "intend," "believe," "anticipate," "may," "will," "should," "could," "continue," "project," or similar statements or variations of such terms.

Our forward-looking statements are based on a series of expectations, assumptions and projections about our company, are not guarantees of future results or performance, and involve substantial risks and uncertainty. All of our forward-looking statements are as of the date of this release only. The company can give no assurance that such expectations or forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Actual results may differ materially.

Certain factors that may impact our continuing operations, prospects, financial results and liquidity or which may cause actual results to differ from such forward-looking statements are discussed or included in the company's periodic reports filed with the SEC and are available on our website at www.virtus.com under "Investor Relations." You are urged to carefully consider all such factors.

The company does not undertake or plan to update or revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in plans, assumptions, estimates or projections, or other circumstances occurring after the date of this release, even if such results, changes or circumstances make it clear that any forward-looking information will not be realized. If there are any future public statements or disclosures by us which modify or impact any of the forward-looking statements contained in or accompanying this release, such statements or disclosures will be deemed to modify or supersede such statements in this release.

SOURCE Virtus Investment Partners, Inc.