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Putnam Receives Six Lipper Fund Awards for Superior Long-Term Performance

^{Published on 2011-03-24 08:25:39 - Market Wire}
 

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - March 24, 2011) - Putnam Investments today announced that six of its funds -- across multiple asset classes -- have received 2011 Lipper Fund Awards in recognition of their consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to peers for periods of three years or more.

The awards, which were distributed at an event in New York last night, are the latest in a series of honors received by Putnam mutual funds during the past year, and reflect strong improvements in long-term performance.

The six funds that have been honored are from a variety of asset classes -- domestic equity, international equity, tax-free income and taxable income -- and include:

• Putnam American Government Income Y (Quotron Symbol Pending - 3 years)
• Putnam Arizona Tax Exempt Income Fund A (PTAZX - 3 years)
• Putnam International Growth Fund Y (PINYX - 5 years)
• Putnam Massachusetts Tax Exempt Income Fund A (PXMAX - 3 years)
• Putnam U.S. Government Income Trust Y (PUSYX - 3 years)
• Putnam Voyager Fund Y (PVYYX - 3 years)

"The Lipper Fund Awards honor the best of the best, and we are proud to have six of our funds recognized this year, including three funds that have been honored for the second year in a row," said Robert L. Reynolds, President and Chief Executive Officer, Putnam Investments. "We are pleased that the honorees include funds from across several asset classes, which reflects our commitment to providing advisors and investors with a complete set of strong solutions to address their investment needs. Finally, we are especially pleased that the awards are for risk-adjusted performance over periods of three or more years, which we believe signals a growing record of performance excellence."

This year's six Lipper Fund awards doubled the number received by Putnam mutual funds last year, and reflect the turnaround in performance since Reynolds took the helm in July 2008. Reynolds moved aggressively to improve fund performance, increasing individual fund manager accountability and responsibility, realigning manager and analyst incentives to reward those who deliver top-quartile results for investors and introducing innovative products including the industry's first suite of absolute return funds, its first suite of global sector funds and the Spectrum Funds, which invest in the securities of leveraged companies.

Barron's Best Mutual-Fund Families Survey has ranked Putnam among the top 15 fund families for the past two consecutive years.

Putnam U.S. Government Income Trust Y (PUSYX) was honored for its performance over a three-year period in the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) Funds category. The fund pursues income and capital preservation with a conservative focus on government bonds. It is managed by Daniel Choquette and Michael Salm and has a share class inception date of April 11, 1994.

Putnam Voyager Fund (PVYYX) won in the Large-Cap Growth Funds category for the three-year period. It is managed by Nick Thakore and seeks capital appreciation through investing in the growth potential of leading American companies. The fund has a share class inception date of March 31, 1994.

Putnam American Government Income Fund Y (QUOTRON PENDING) was honored for its three-year performance in the General U.S. Government Funds category. The fund, which targets income and capital preservation with a range of government bonds, is managed by Daniel Choquette and Michael Salm. It has a share class inception date of July 2, 2001.

Putnam Arizona Tax Exempt Income Fund A (PTAZX) received its award for its performance over three years in the Arizona Municipal Debt Funds class. The fund seeks a high level of current income exempt from federal income tax and personal income tax of the state of Arizona, consistent with the preservation of capital. The fund is managed by Thalia Meehan, Paul Drury, and Susan McCormack, and has a share class inception date of January 30, 1991.

Putnam Massachusetts Tax Exempt Income Fund A (PXMAX) was honored for its performance over the past three years in the Massachusetts Municipal Debt Funds category. The fund seeks dependable income that is free of federal and state income tax through investing in municipal bonds issued in the state of Massachusetts. It is managed by Thalia Meehan, Paul Drury, and Susan McCormack, and has a share class inception date of October 23, 1989.

Putnam International Growth Fund (PINYX) won for its performance over five years in the International Large-Cap Growth Funds category. It invests in international companies with above-average earnings growth primarily from developed international markets. The fund is managed by Jeff Sackowitz, and has an inception date of October 4, 2005.

The Lipper Fund Awards are presented annually by Lipper, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reuters. Funds are awarded based on "delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance, relative to peers." Lipper provides independent insight on global collective investments including mutual funds, retirement funds, hedge funds, fund fees and expenses to the asset management and media communities. Covering over 143,000 share classes and over 75,000 funds domiciled in 59 countries, Lipper is the world's leading fund research and analysis organization.

About Putnam Investments
Founded in 1937, Putnam Investments is a leading global money management firm with over 70 years of investment experience. At the end of February 2011, Putnam had $125 billion in assets under management, including mutual fund assets of $69 billion and institutional assets of $56 billion. Putnam has offices in Boston, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, visit [ putnam.com ].

Putnam mutual funds are distributed by Putnam Retail Management.