Voya Strategic Income Opportunities Fund Receives Five-Star Rating from Morningstar

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Voya Investment Management, the asset management business of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced today that Morningstar has given the Voya Strategic Income Opportunities Fund a five-star overall rating for its class I shares (IISIX) as of 12/31/15 in the non-traditional bond category. With approximately $118 million in assets, the Fund seeks total return through income and capital appreciation through all market cycles.

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“In managing this strategy over the last three years, the investment team has been able to leverage the firm’s leading fundamental research and security selection capabilities to build a fully diversified portfolio by investing across the broad fixed income landscape-- including senior bank loans, high yield bonds, investment grade credit, securitized credit and emerging markets debt,” said Christine Hurtsellers, chief investment officer for Fixed Income at Voya Investment Management and co-fund manager.

The fund takes a flexible and adaptive approach to investing and maintains an appropriate mix of exposure to duration and credit, as credit markets evolve, while focusing on capital preservation and mitigating downside risk.

“Our portfolio positioning is informed by a deep understanding of the global macro environment and an acute sensitivity to changing market dynamics,” said Hurtsellers,

“We believe that an unconstrained strategy should not take unconstrained risk. Instead we take an unconstrained approach to portfolio construction with a very specific risk budget to achieve targeted return objectives,” said Matt Toms, head of public fixed income and co-fund manager. “With this approach, we believe that we have created a unique offering relative to our competitors that is built for the long-term.”

For each fund with at least a three-year history, Morningstar™ calculates a Morningstar Rating based on a Morningstar Risk Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund’s monthly performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance.

The top 10% of funds in each category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) The Overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five- and ten-year (if applicable).

Morningstar Rating is for the A share class only; other classes may have different performance characteristics. The numerical ranking shown indicates the fund’s total-return percentile rank relative to all funds that have the same Morningstar category. The highest (or most favorable) percentile rank is 1 and the lowest (or least favorable) percentile rank is 100. The top performing fund in a category will always receive a rank of 1. This fund ranked third, out of 270 funds in its category, for three year annualized returns.

Media Contact:
Kristopher Kagel
(212) 309-6568
[email protected]

About Voya Investment Management
A leading, active asset management firm, Voya Investment Management manages, as of September 30, 2015, more than $201 billion for affiliated and external institutions as well as individual investors. With 40 years of history in asset management, Voya Investment Management has the experience and resources to provide clients with investment solutions with an emphasis on equities, fixed income, and multi-asset strategies and solutions. Voya Investment Management was named in 2015 as a “Best Places to Work” by Pensions and Investments magazine. For more information, visit voyainvestments.com. Follow Voya Investment Management on Twitter @VoyaInvestments.

Disclosures

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The Morningstar Rating™ is a quantitative assessment of a fund’s past performance—both return and risk—as measured from one to five stars. It uses focused comparison groups to better measure fund manager skill. As always, the Morningstar Rating™ is intended for use as the first step in the fund evaluation process.

Investment Risks: All investing involves risks of fluctuating prices and the uncertainties of rates of return and yield inherent in investing. Foreign Investing does pose special risks including currency fluctuation, economic and political risks not found in investments that are solely domestic. Emerging Market securities may be especially volatile. The Fund may use Derivatives, such as options and futures, which can be illiquid, may disproportionately increase losses and have a potentially large impact on Fund performance. The Fund is subject to both Credit and Interest Rate Risk. The Fund's share price and yield will be affected by interest rate movements, with bond prices generally moving in the opposite direction from interest rates. Credit Risk refers to the bond issuers and senior loan issuers ability to make timely payments of principal and interest. High-Yield Securities, or junk bonds are rated lower than investment-grade bonds because there is a greater possibility that the issuer may be unable to make interest and principal payments on those securities. To the extent that the Fund invests in Mortgage-Related Securities, its exposure to prepayment and extension risks may be greater than investments in other fixed-income securities. Other risks of the Fund include but are not limited to: Borrowing/Leverage Risks; Debt Securities Risk; Non-Diversification Risks; Other Investment Companies Risks; Price Volatility Risks; Inability to Sell Securities Risks; Securities Lending Risks; and Portfolio Turnover Risks. Investors should consult the Fund's Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information for a more detailed discussion of the Fund's risks.

An investor should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Fund(s) carefully before investing. For a free copy of the Fund's prospectus, or summary prospectus, which contains this and other information, visit us at www.voyainvestments.com or call (800) 992-0180.

Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.

Individual Investors (800) 992-0180

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