Asian Equity Fund has received the DM/S&P Award for first place in the Equity-Far East category for the fund's one-year performance as of December 29, 2000.

The award is among those given annually by the German business magazine DM and the investment database S&P Fund Services for the most successful investment companies and the best individual funds.

WP Stewart Asian Equity Fund's investment objective is to achieve maximum capital appreciation through the purchase of a regionally diversified portfolio of high quality growth companies based or operating in regulated markets including Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

BUSINESS BUC