Morningstar : Announces Winners for the 2015 Morningstar Fund Awards Belgium

BRUSSELS, 26 March 2015-Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, has announced the winners of its 2015 Fund Awards Belgium. Morningstar announced the winners on Wednesday, 25 March at a ceremony at the IPM Group in Brussels.

The Morningstar Fund Awards Belgium are designed to help investors identify the retail funds and fund groups that added the most value for investors within the context of their relevant peer group in 2014 and over longer time periods. Morningstar selects the winners using a quantitative methodology with a qualitative overlay that considers the one-, three-, and five-year performance history of all eligible funds, and adjusts returns for risk using Morningstar Risk, a measure that imposes a higher penalty for downside variation in a fund's return than it does for upside volatility.

"We have a long history of awarding funds and fund groups across multiple markets for their work adding the most value for investors", San Lie, Head of Research for Morningstar Benelux, said. "As part of our mission to help investors reach their financial goals, our awards recognize the funds that have excelled in delivering outstanding risk-adjusted outcomes in their categories, and the fund houses that have achieved impressive returns for their investors during the period. Our congratulations go to the winners."

The winners for the 2015 Morningstar Fund Awards Belgium are:

Best Asia-Pacific Equity Fund / Schroder International Selection Fund Asian Equity Yield
Best Belgium Equity Fund / Degroof Eqs Belgium Active
Best Emerging Markets Bond Fund / Julius Baer Multibond - Local Emerging Bond Fund
Best EUR Allocation Fund / ING (L) Patrimonial Aggressive Fund
Best EUR Corporate Bond Fund / Fidelity Funds - Euro Corp Bond
Best EUR Diversified Bond Fund / Fidelity Funds - Euro Bond Fund
Best EUR Government Bond Fund / JPM EU Government Bond
Best Europe Equity Fund / Invesco Funds - Invesco Pan European Structured Equity Fund
Best Europe Small/Mid-Cap Equity Fund / Parvest Equity Europe Small Cap
Best Global Bond Fund / Legg Mason Brandywine Global Fixed Income Fund
Best Global Emerging Markets Equity Fund / Comgest Growth Emerging Markets
Best Global Equity Fund / Schroder International Selection Fund QEP Global Quality
Best High-Yield Bond Fund / Candriam Bonds Euro High Yield
Best US Equity Fund / Legg Mason ClearBridge US Aggressive Growth Fund

Best Fund House: Larger Equity / Threadneedle Investments
Best Fund House: Larger Fixed-Income / AXA Investment Managers
Best Fund House: Multi-Asset / Threadneedle Investments
Best Fund House: Specialist Equity / Comgest
Best Fund House: Specialist Fixed-Income / Pioneer Investments

For more information about the awards event and the awards methodology, please contact benelux.support@morningstar.com or visit http://awards.morningstar.com.

To celebrate the 2015 Morningstar Fund Awards Belgium, Prosper van Zanten, Head of Benelux Distribution for Threadneedle Investments, opened the Euronext Brussels with a special Bell Ceremony on Thursday 26 March. To view the Bell Ceremony, please visit the Euronext website at www.beurs.be or www.bourse.be.

Notes to Editors:
The Morningstar fund category awards and fund house awards are based on Morningstar fund data as of 31 December 2014. The awards methodology emphasizes the one-year period, but funds must also have delivered strong five-year returns after adjusting for risk within the award peer groups in order to obtain an award.

About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, and retirement plan providers and sponsors. Morningstar provides data on approximately 500,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 14 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries and had approximately U.S.$170 billion in assets under advisement and management as of 31 December 2014. The company has operations in 27 countries.

The references above should not be considered a solicitation by Morningstar to buy securities.

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