Returns for the quarter were largely attributable to solid returns in our Dutch and Swiss holdings, particularly in a number of our consumer staple, financial and industrial stocks. Stocks such as Nestle, ABN Amro (ABN), Heineken (HINKY.PK) and Kone had strong returns despite the tumult during the quarter. Our small weighting in Japan was also a plus as Japanese stocks were down once again for the quarter. In contrast, a number of our British holdings, and some of our consumer discretionary, pharmaceutical and materials holdings performed poorly during the quarter. This included stocks such as Cargotec Corp., Barclays (BCS), and Akzo Nobel, among others.

In terms of portfolio activity during the quarter, we added one new stock, SK Telecom (SKM), the large South Korean wireless communications company, which at purchase was trading at roughly 9X estimated earnings, and had a dividend yield of roughly 4%. Our shares of Commonwealth Telephone, another Fund holding, were acquired by Citizens Communications (CZN) via a buyout during the quarter, and we received a combination of cash and shares in Citizens Communications. Citizens is a U.S.-based telecommunications company that currently trades at approximately 20x earnings, but has a dividend yield of nearly 6.5%. In terms of sales during the quarter, we sold our remaining shares in Pfizer (PFE), and pared back a number of positions including Transatlantic Holdings (TRH), MBIA (MBI), Popular (BPOP) and Great American Financial Resources (GFR).