March 16th 2020

An update to shareholders regarding our response to the COVID-19 virus and the management of the Guinness Atkinson Funds.

Beginning last week, most Guinness Atkinson employees began working from home both in the US and the UK. Most of the Guinness Atkinson Funds are managed by teams and the co-managers of the Funds are not being co-located. Day to day portfolio management and operational activities are being conducted using our normal operational and communications systems. Remote operations have been working as planned and we don’t foresee any operational difficulties. We had our regularly scheduled portfolio management team meeting this morning via video conference and the meeting was conducted as usual.

Not surprisingly, the portfolio managers of the Funds have been reviewing the holdings of each of the Funds and there have been a few changes. We provide some details below.

Global Energy: A number of position changes have been made in the last week; details will be provided in the next update. In making the portfolio changes the managers were aiming to increase the quality of the holdings, mitigate the near-term downside risk and hopefully to add companies that will participate in any recovery.

Dividend Builder: In late February the Fund made a couple of changes. For more information, click here to read the March 2020 Fund Update.

China &Hong Kong Fund: Two stocks were sold and replaced last week. Details will be available in the upcoming update.

Global Innovators: A number of switches were made last week. Five companies were sold, companies we viewed as having higher cash flow and/or balance sheet risk and bought five new companies that appear to be more robust and valuations are now more attractive. Specific details will be provided in the next monthly update. The overall effect of these switches were an effort to improve the overall return on capital of the portfolio metrics and average profit margins for the holdings, while aiming to reduce capital intensity for the overall portfolio. Balance sheet strength has remained robust with more cash than debt. The changes increased our US exposure while reduced Europe and Asia. They also increased our Health Care and IT exposure while reduced our Industrial exposure.

Asia Focus and Asia Pacific Dividend Builder: Two portfolio changes are being contemplated.  

Alternative Energy Fund: No recent changes.

Renminbi Yuan & Bond Fund: No recent changes.

Important Disclosures:

The Funds’ investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses must be considered carefully before investing. The statutory and summary prospectuses contain this and other important information and can be obtained by calling 800- 915-6565 or visiting www.gafunds.com. Read and consider it carefully before investing.

Mutual fund investing includes risk, including loss of principal invested. Investments in foreign securities involve greater volatility, political, economic and currency risks and differences in accounting methods. These risks are greater for emerging markets countries. Non-diversified funds concentrate assets in fewer holdings than diversified funds. Therefore, non-diversified funds are more exposed to individual stock volatility than diversified funds. Investments in debt securities typically decrease in value when interest rates rise, which can be greater for longer-term debt securities. Investments in derivatives involve risks different from, and in certain cases, greater than the risks presented by traditional investments. Investments in small and mid-cap companies involve additional risks such as limited liquidity and greater volatility. Funds concentrated in a specific sector or geographic region may be subject to more volatility than a more diversified investment. Investments focused in a single geographic region may be exposed to greater risk than investments diversified among various geographies. Investments focused on the energy sector may be exposed to greater risk than an investment diversified among various sectors. See statutory or summary prospectuses for risks associate with each Fund.

Fund holdings and/or sector allocations are subject to change at any time and are not recommendations to buy or sell any security.

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