AdvisorShares Announces New Organizational Plans for HYLD, an Industry-Leading Income Payer Among High Yield ETFs and Mutual Funds

BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- AdvisorShares, a leading sponsor of actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), announced today that the AdvisorShares Board of Trustees has approved a transition of the AdvisorShares Peritus High Yield ETF (Ticker: HYLD) from the AdvisorShares Trust to the Amplify ETF Trust, which is sponsored by Amplify ETFs. Pending approval by HYLD shareholders and the Amplify ETF Trust Fund Board, this is expected to become effective in the second quarter of 2018.

HYLD is managed by Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Peritus Asset Management, a value-based active credit manager that specializes in fixed income opportunities in the corporate bond and loan markets with a focus on the non-investment grade asset class. Peritus will continue to manage HYLD after this transition. The change in ETF Trusts will still ensure that normal business will remain intact for HYLD, not affecting the ETF's investment approach and fund operations during this transition. This new organizational plan provides a unique opportunity that all involved parties believe serves in the best interests of HYLD shareholders, including a new platform to highlight HYLD's remarkable income story and strong emergence from a challenging high yield environment.

"We're excited about this opportunity to work with AdvisorShares on this endeavor," said Christian Magoon, chief executive officer of Amplify ETFs. "We believe the addition of HYLD to our expanding ETF suite delivers attractive opportunities for both significant growth and to enhance our income-focused offerings."

"HYLD was among our firm's early offerings and helped spark a wave of innovation in becoming the first actively managed, high yield ETF," added Noah Hamman, chief executive officer of AdvisorShares. "We tremendously appreciate all the support that Peritus has provided as a valued partner in telling the actively managed ETF story to an ever-growing audience."

HYLD seeks to provide a high, tangible current income stream that is distributed monthly, which can help meet investor income goals as part of a diversified portfolio. As exhibited below, HYLD has consistently demonstrated that its investment strategy pays higher annual dividends versus both annual ETF and mutual fund averages in Morningstar's High Yield Bond category.

High Yield Funds ? Income Distributions by Year

Source: Morningstar, 1/1/2011-8/31/2017

Morningstar's High Yield Bond category represents portfolios primarily invested in U.S. high-income debt securities where at least 65% or more of bond assets are not rated or are rated by a major agency such as Standard & Poor's or Moody's at the level of BB (considered speculative for taxable bonds) and below. Both annual ETF and mutual fund averages from Morningstar's High Yield Bond category are equally-weighted.

HYLD Fund Statistics (through 10/31/2017)

Past Performance is not indicative of future results. HYLD statistics and industry breakdowns are for the actual HYLD security holdings as of the listed date. For the purposes of the duration calculation, equity holdings have been excluded and loans assigned a duration of 0.25.

HYLD Performance (through 9/30 2017)           

Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than original cost. Returns less than one year are not annualized. For the Fund's most recent month end performance, please visit www.AdvisorShares.com. The Fund has an expense ratio of 1.25%.

For financial professionals and investors requesting more information, please visit www.advisorshares.com or call an AdvisorShares Investment Consultant at 1-877-THE-ETF1 (1-877-843-3831).

About AdvisorShares
A leading provider in the actively managed ETF marketplace, AdvisorShares offers 16 active ETFs with $1.1 billion of assets under management (as of December 1, 2017). Visit www.advisorshares.com to register for free weekly economic commentary and to access our weekly "AlphaCall" podcast for financial professionals. For additional educational insights on the active ETF marketplace, visit www.alphabaskets.com, follow @AdvisorShares on Twitter and on Facebook.

Before investing you should carefully consider the Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other information is in the prospectus, a copy of which may be obtained by visiting the Fund's website at www.AdvisorShares.com. Please read the prospectus carefully before you invest.

Foreside Fund Services, LLC, distributor.

An investment in the Fund is subject to risk, including the possible loss of principal amount invested. Non-diversification exposes the Fund to greater market risk than if its assets were diversified among a greater number of issuers and/or sectors. High yield, lower rated bonds involve a greater degree of risk than investment grade bonds in return for higher yield potential. As such, securities rated below investment grade generally entail greater credit, market, issuer and liquidity risk than investment grade securities. Interest rate risk occurs when interest rates rise as bond prices usually fall. This Fund may not be suitable for all investors.

Shares are bought and sold at market price (closing price) not net asset value (NAV) and are not individually redeemed from the Fund. Market price returns are based on the midpoint of the bid/ask spread at 4:00 pm Eastern Time (when NAV is normally determined) and do not represent the return you would receive if you traded at other times.

Duration is the change of a fixed income security that will result from a 1% change in interest rate. HYLD uses a modified duration calculation and the Barclays High Yield Index a Macaulay duration calculation, both based on the yield to worst date.
30?Day SEC Yield (Standardized Yield) is an annualized yield furnished by the Fund's custodian that is calculated by dividing the investment income earned by the Fund less expenses over the most recent 30-day period by the current maximum offering price.

SOURCE AdvisorShares