No person
has been authorized to give any information or to make any representations other
than those contained in this Prospectus and the Funds’ Statement of Additional
Information (“SAI”) dated June 24, 2026 (which is incorporated by reference into
this Prospectus and is legally a part of this Prospectus) and, if given or made,
such information or representations may not be relied upon as having been
authorized by us.
Investment
Objective
Current
income and preservation of capital, consistent with Islamic principles. Current
income is its primary objective.
Fees and
Expenses
This section
describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of
the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as
brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not
reflected in the table and example below.
Shareowner
Fees
None.
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a
percentage of the value of your
investment):
|
Management Fees |
|
|
0.76% |
|
|
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1)
Fees(1) |
|
|
0.00% |
|
|
Other Expenses(2) |
|
|
0.00% |
|
|
Total Annual Fund
Operating Expenses |
|
|
0.76% |
|
Example
This
example is intended to help investors compare the cost of investing in shares of
the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The example assumes an
investor invests $10,000 in shares of the Fund for the time periods indicated.
The example also assumes that the investment has a 5% return each year and that
the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example does not reflect any
brokerage commissions that an investor may pay on purchases and sales of Fund
shares. Although actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these
assumptions, whether an investor does or does not redeem the shares, an
investor’s expenses would be:
|
One
Year |
Three
Years |
|
|
$78 |
$243 |
|
Portfolio
Turnover
The
Fund may have transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells
securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may
indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund
shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in
the annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s
performance. Because the Fund had not yet commenced operations prior to the date
of this Prospectus, it does not have a portfolio turnover rate to
provide.
Principal Investment
Strategies
The
Fund invests primarily in dividend-paying common stocks, including foreign
stocks. Investment decisions are made in accordance with Islamic principles.
Generally, Islamic principles require that investors share in profit and loss,
that they receive no usury or interest, and that they do not invest in a
business that is prohibited by Islamic principles. To the extent prohibited by
Islamic investment principles the Fund does not invest in companies primarily
engaged in businesses such as alcohol, tobacco, pork products, pornography,
interest-based banks, finance associations and insurers, weapons, and
gambling.
The
Fund does not make any investments not permitted under Islamic principles,
including those that pay interest. Islamic principles discourage speculation.
The Fund tends to hold investments for several years. The Fund may invest its
uninvested cash in short-term Islamic income-producing investments called
murabaha and wakala, as described below.
The
Fund principally follows a large-cap value investment style. Common stock
purchases are restricted to dividend-paying companies. The Fund seeks companies
demonstrating both Islamic and sustainable characteristics.
The
Fund’s adviser (Saturna Capital Corporation) considers issuers with sustainable
characteristics to be those issuers that are more established, consistently
profitable, and financially strong, with robust policies in the areas of the
environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance (collectively
referred to as “sustainability”).
Except
for murabaha and wakala investments, the adviser employs a sustainable rating
system based on its own, as well as third-party, data to identify issuers
believed to have lower sustainability risks. The use of third-party data does
not include third-party environmental, social, or governance (“ESG”) ratings or
criteria established by third parties for third-party ratings. The adviser’s
proprietary scoring system assesses how well a company performs relative to a
blend of its industry, sector, and country peers. In addition to the financial
considerations discussed above, the adviser considers sustainability practices
such as carbon emissions, water usage, renewable energy, and fair labor and
supply chain practices. The Fund’s sustainability evaluation process considers
risks and opportunities holistically, meaning an issuer will not necessarily be
excluded from investment due to any one particular factor if the overall
analysis results in a favorable evaluation by the adviser. The adviser also uses
negative screening to exclude companies primarily engaged in higher
sustainability risk businesses, such as companies in the business of fossil fuel
exploration, production, or refining, and, to the extent prohibited by Islamic
investment principles, companies primarily engaged in businesses such as
alcohol, tobacco, pork products, pornography, interest-based banks, finance
associations and insurers, weapons, and gambling.
The
Fund is “non-diversified,” which means that it may invest a larger percentage of
its assets in a relatively small number of issuers.
It
is the policy of the Fund, under normal circumstances, to invest at least 80% of
its total net assets in income-producing equity securities, primarily
dividend-paying common stocks.
Because
Islamic principles preclude the use of interest-paying instruments, the Fund’s
cash positions do not earn interest income. The Fund may invest its cash
positions in murabaha and wakala, which are notes and certificates issued for
payment by foreign governments, their agencies, and financial institutions in
transactions structured to be in accordance with Islamic principles. Murabaha
involves a purchase and sale contract, and wakala involves the operation of an
account under the Islamic finance principle of wakala (an agency agreement).
These investments typically involve the purchase of financial certificates
representing investments in tangible assets, project financing, sale and
leaseback arrangements, and the distribution of profits (as opposed to the
payment of interest) related to the underlying asset or project. Unlike an
investment in a bond that represents a promise to pay interest, these
investments involve the sharing of profits and losses in the assets or projects
financed by the Fund’s investment in the notes and certificates. In addition,
the Fund may invest cash positions in time deposits with banks that involve
underlying purchase and sale agreements to generate the return on the
deposit.
For
cash management purposes, the Fund will seek to gain exposure to murabaha and
wakala investments by investing up to 20% of the Fund’s total net assets in a
wholly-owned and controlled subsidiary, which is organized under the laws of the
Cayman Islands (the “Subsidiary”). The Subsidiary invests in murabaha and wakala
investments and may invest in other short-term Islamic income-producing
investments. The Fund invests in the Subsidiary in order to gain exposure to
murabaha and wakala investments within the limitations of the federal tax law,
rules and regulations that apply to “regulated investment
companies.”
Principal
Risks of Investing
As with all
funds, investing in the Fund entails risks that could cause the Fund and the
Fund’s investors to lose money. The principal risks of investing
in the Fund are as follows:
Market risk: The value of the Fund’s shares rises and falls as
the market value of the securities in which the Fund invests goes up and
down. Consider investing in the Fund only if you are willing to accept the
risk that you may lose money. Fund share prices, yields, and total returns
will change with the fluctuations in the securities markets as well as the
fortunes of the industries and companies in which the Fund
invests.
Investment strategy risk: Islamic principles restrict the Fund’s ability to
invest in certain market sectors, such as financial companies and conventional
fixed-income securities. The adviser believes that Islamic and sustainable
investing may mitigate security-specific risks, but the screens used in
connection with these strategies reduce the investable universe, which may limit
investment opportunities and adversely affect the Fund’s performance. Because
Islamic principles preclude the use of interest-paying instruments, cash
positions do not earn interest income but, to the extent the Fund invests cash
in murabaha or wakala, the Fund will share in the distribution of profits (as
opposed to the payment of interest) related to any murabaha or wakala
investments.
Equity securities risk: Equity securities may experience significant
volatility in response to economic or market conditions or adverse events that
affect a particular industry, sector, or company. Larger companies may have
slower rates of growth as compared to smaller, faster-growing companies. Smaller
companies may have more limited financial resources, products, or services, and
tend to be more sensitive to changing economic or market
conditions.
Foreign investing risk: The Fund may invest in securities that are not
traded in the United States when market conditions or investment opportunities
arise that, in the judgment of the adviser, warrant such investment. Investments
in the securities of foreign issuers may involve risks in addition to those
normally associated with investments in the securities of US issuers. All
foreign investments are subject to risks of: (1) foreign political and economic
instability; (2) adverse movements in foreign exchange rates; (3) currency
devaluation; (4) the imposition or tightening of exchange controls or other
limitations on repatriation of foreign capital; (5) changes in foreign
governmental attitudes toward private investment, including potential
nationalization, increased taxation, or confiscation of assets; and (6)
differing reporting, accounting, and auditing standards of foreign
countries.
Murabaha risk: A murabaha transaction involves a purchase and
deferred-payment resale of an asset. The asset is typically purchased by an
Islamic bank as agent for the Fund. The bank, acting as the Fund's agent,
immediately resells the asset to a previously identified third party who agrees
to repay the Fund's cost for the asset plus a profit. Murabaha investments are
subject to market risk (fluctuating prices and exchange rates), credit risk, and
operational risk (errors in
processes).
Wakala risk: When the Fund invests in wakala, it will be
subject to the credit risk of the bank acting as agent, and the risk that the
bank will not manage the investment in a profitable
manner.
Interest rate risk: The Fund does not invest in interest bearing
investments However, since murabaha and wakala are Islamic fixed-income
investments, the financial and economic data associated with interest bearing
investments similarly affect the yields and returns on murabaha and wakala.
Changes in interest rates impact prices of fixed-income and related investments.
When interest rates rise, the value of fixed-income investments (paying a lower
rate of interest) generally will fall. Investments with shorter terms may have
less interest rate risk, but generally have lower returns and, because of the
more frequent maturity dates, may involve higher re-investment
costs.
Credit risk: Corporate and sovereign issuers of the notes and
certificates in which the Fund invests may not be able or willing to make
payments when due, which may lead to default or restructuring of the investment.
In addition, if the market perceives deterioration in the creditworthiness of an
issuer, the value and liquidity of the issuer’s securities may
decline.
Subsidiary investment
risk: By investing in the Subsidiary,
the Fund is subject to the risks associated with the Subsidiary’s investments.
Those investments are similar to the investments that are permitted to be held
by the Fund and are subject to the same risks that would apply to similar
investments if held directly by the Fund. The Subsidiary is organized under the
laws of the Cayman Islands and is not registered with the SEC under the
Investment Company Act of 1940. Accordingly, the Fund will not receive all of
the protections offered to shareowners of registered investment companies.
Changes in the laws of the United States and/or the Cayman Islands could result
in the inability of the Fund and/or the Subsidiary to operate as intended, which
may negatively affect the Fund and its
shareowners.
Tax risk: To qualify as a regulated investment company
(“RIC”), the Fund must meet certain requirements concerning the source of its
income. The Fund’s investment in the Subsidiary is intended to provide exposure
to murabaha and wakala in a manner that is consistent with the “qualifying
income” requirement applicable to RICs. Failure to qualify as a RIC could
subject the Fund to adverse tax consequences, including a federal income tax on
its net income at regular corporate rates, as well as a tax to shareowners on
such income when distributed as an ordinary dividend.
The
tax treatment of the Equity Income ETF’s investment in its Subsidiary may be
adversely affected by future legislation, court decisions, Treasury Regulations,
and/or guidance issued by the Internal Revenue Service that could affect the
character, timing, and/ or amount of the Fund’s taxable income or any gains or
distributions made by the Fund.
ETF risk: As an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”), the Fund is subject
to the following risks:
Authorized Participants
Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited
number of financial institutions that may act as authorized participants (APs”).
Only APs may transact in creation and redemption transactions directly with the
Fund, and APs are not obligated to engage in such transactions. To the extent
they exit the business or are otherwise unable or unwilling to proceed in
creation and redemption transactions with the Fund, such as in times of market
stress, and no other authorized participant is able to step forward to create or
redeem, trading in Fund shares may be significantly diminished, bid-ask spreads
may widen and shares of the Fund may be more likely to trade at a premium or
discount to net asset value (“NAV”) and possibly face trading halts or
delisting. To the extent the Fund invests in securities issued by non-U.S.
issuers or other securities or instruments that have lower trading volumes, this
risk is heightened.
International Closed Market Trading
Risk: Because certain of the Fund’s
investments trade in markets that are closed when the Fund and the Nasdaq Global Market (“Exchange”) are open, there
are likely to be deviations between the current prices of such investments and
the prices at which such investments are marked for purposes of the Fund’s NAV
(i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed
foreign market). As a result, premiums or discounts to NAV may develop in share
prices, and bid-ask spreads may be greater than those experienced by other
funds. In addition, shareowners may not be able to purchase or redeem their
shares of the Fund, or purchase or sell shares of the Fund on the Exchange, on
days when the NAV of the Fund could be significantly affected by events in the
relevant non-U.S. markets.
Premium-Discount Risk: There may be times when the market price of the Fund’s
shares is more than the NAV intra-day (at a premium) or less than the NAV
intra-day (at a discount). As a result, shareowners of the Fund may pay more
than NAV when purchasing shares and receive less than NAV when selling Fund
shares. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of
steep market declines. In such market conditions, market or stop loss orders to
sell Fund shares may be executed at prices well below NAV.
Secondary Market Trading
Risk: Investors buying or selling shares in
the secondary market will normally pay brokerage commissions, which are often a
fixed amount and may be a significant proportional cost for investors buying or
selling relatively small amounts of shares. Secondary market trading is subject
to bid-ask spreads, which is the difference between the highest price a buyer is
willing to pay to purchase shares of a fund (bid) and the lowest price a seller
is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying or selling shares in the
secondary market, and trading in Fund shares may be halted by the Exchange
because of market conditions or other reasons. If a trading halt occurs, a
shareowner may temporarily be unable to purchase or sell shares of the Fund. The
bid-ask spread, which varies over time, is generally narrower if the Fund has
more trading volume and market liquidity and wider if the Fund has less trading
volume and market liquidity. In addition, the bid-ask spread can be affected by
the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying investments and can widen if the Fund’s
underlying investments become less liquid or illiquid. In addition, although the
Fund’s shares are listed on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an
active trading market for shares will develop or be maintained, that bid-ask
spreads will be narrow, or that the Fund’s shares will continue to be
listed.
Cash Transactions Risk: The Fund may effect redemptions partly or wholly for
cash, rather than through in-kind distributions of securities. Accordingly, the
Fund may be required to sell portfolio securities in order to obtain the cash
needed to distribute redemption proceeds and it may recognize gains on sales of
portfolio holdings. As a result, an investment in the Fund may be less
tax-efficient than an investment in an ETF that primarily or wholly effects
redemptions in-kind. Moreover, cash transactions may have to be carried out over
several days if the securities markets are relatively illiquid at the time the
Fund must sell securities and may involve considerable brokerage fees and taxes.
These brokerage fees and taxes, which will be higher than if the Fund redeemed
its shares principally in-kind, may be passed on to APs in the form of
transaction fees. As a result, the spreads between the bid and the offered
prices of the Fund’s shares may be wider than those of shares of ETFs that
primarily or wholly transact in-kind.
Large Shareowner Risk: Certain shareowners may own a substantial amount of the
Fund’s shares. Redemptions by large shareowners could have a significant
negative impact on the Fund and transactions on the Exchange by large
shareowners may have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of
the shares.
Non-Diversified fund risk:
The Fund may invest a relatively high
percentage of its assets in a single issuer or a limited number of issuers. As a
result, the Fund’s performance will be more vulnerable to changes in market
value of a single issuer or group of issuers and more susceptible to risks
associated with a single adverse economic, political, regulatory or other
occurrence affecting one or more of these issuers. The Fund may experience
greater performance volatility than a fund that is more broadly
invested.
New fund risk: The Fund is new and does not have shares outstanding as
of the date of this Prospectus. The Fund may not be successful in implementing
its investment strategy, and its investment strategy may not be successful under
all future market conditions, either of which could result in the Fund being
liquidated at some future time without shareowner approval and/or at a time that
may not be favorable for certain shareowners. New funds may not attract
sufficient assets to achieve investment, trading or other efficiencies and, if
the Fund does not grow in size, it will be at greater risk than larger funds of
wider bid-ask spreads for its shares, trading at a greater premium or discount
to NAV and/or a stop to trading.
Performance
The Fund had not commenced
operations as of the date of this Prospectus. Performance
information will be available in the Prospectus after the Fund has been in
operation for one full calendar year. When provided,
the information will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the
Fund by showing how the Fund’s average annual returns compare with a broad
measure of market performance. Past performance
does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the
future. Updated performance information will be available at
https://www.saturna.com/products/etf-performance.
Investment
Adviser
Saturna
Capital Corporation is the Fund’s investment adviser (“adviser”).
Portfolio
Managers
Mr. Monem A.
Salam MBA, executive vice president and portfolio manager at Saturna Capital
Corporation, has been primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the
Fund since its inception. Mr. Bryce R. Fegley MS, CFA®, CIPM®, and Mr. Levi
Stewart Zurbrugg MBA, CFA®, CPA®, each of whom is a senior investment analyst
and portfolio manager of Saturna Capital Corporation, have been deputy portfolio
managers for the Fund since its inception.
Sub-Adviser
Vident
Asset Management is the Fund’s sub-adviser. The sub-adviser is responsible for
trading portfolio securities for the Fund, including selecting broker-dealers to
execute purchase and sale transactions and monitoring of Fund trading activity,
subject to the oversight of the adviser and the Fund’s board of trustees.
Portfolio
Managers
Mr. Austin Wen, CFA®and Ms. Devin Ryder
CFA®, both Senior Portfolio Managers of the
sub-adviser, have sub-advised the Fund since its inception.
Purchase and
Sale of Fund Shares
Individual
shares of the Fund may only be bought and sold in secondary market transactions
through a broker or dealer at a market price. Because the shares trade at market
prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium)
or less than NAV (discount). An investor may incur costs attributable to the
difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase
shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask)
when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (i.e., the bid-ask
spread). Investors can find information on the Fund’s NAV, market price,
premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spread at https://www.saturna.com/products/etf-performance.
Tax
Information
Any
distributions you receive from the Fund may be taxed as ordinary income,
qualified dividend income, or capital gains, unless you are investing through a
tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an IRA. Investment in the
Fund through such an arrangement may be taxed later upon withdrawal of monies
from the arrangement.
Purchases
Through Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you
purchase shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as
a bank), the adviser or other related companies may pay the intermediary for the
sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict
of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your
salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson
or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
Investment
Objective
Long-term
capital growth, consistent with Islamic principles.
Fees and
Expenses
This section
describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of
the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as
brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not
reflected in the table and example below.
Shareowner
Fees
None.
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a
percentage of the value of your
investment):
|
Management Fees |
|
|
0.61% |
|
|
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1)
Fees(1) |
|
|
0.00% |
|
|
Other Expenses(2) |
|
|
0.00% |
|
|
Total Annual Fund
Operating Expenses |
|
|
0.61% |
|
Example
This
example is intended to help investors compare the cost of investing in shares of
the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The example assumes an
investor invests $10,000 in shares of the Fund for the time periods indicated.
The example also assumes that the investment has a 5% return each year and that
the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example does not reflect any
brokerage commissions that an investor may pay on purchases and sales of Fund
shares. Although actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these
assumptions, whether an investor does or does not redeem the shares, an
investor’s expenses would be:
|
One
Year |
Three
Years |
|
|
$62 |
$195 |
|
Portfolio
Turnover
The Fund may
have transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities
(or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in the annual
fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance.
Because the Fund had not yet commenced operations prior to the date of this
Prospectus, it does not have a portfolio turnover rate to provide.
Principal Investment
Strategies
The
Fund invests in common stocks, including foreign stocks. Investment decisions
are made in accordance with Islamic principles. Generally, Islamic principles
require that investors share in profit and loss, that they receive no usury or
interest, and that they do not invest in a business that is prohibited by
Islamic principles. To the extent prohibited by Islamic investment principles
the Fund does not invest in companies primarily engaged in businesses such as
alcohol, tobacco, pork products, pornography, interest-based banks, finance
associations and insurers, weapons, and gambling.
The
Fund does not make any investments not permitted under Islamic principles,
including those that pay interest. Islamic principles discourage speculation.
The Fund tends to hold investments for several years.
It is the policy of the Fund,
under normal circumstances, to invest at least 80% of total net assets in common
stocks that the adviser believes exhibit growth characteristics. The adviser
considers a stock to exhibit growth characteristics if, at the time of
investment, the stock’s anticipated revenue, earnings, or cash flow growth rate
exceeds the nominal growth rate of the U.S. economy over a horizon of at
least three years.
The Fund principally
follows a large-cap growth investment style. The Fund may also invest in smaller
and less seasoned companies. The Fund seeks companies demonstrating both Islamic
and sustainable characteristics.
The
Fund’s adviser considers issuers with sustainable characteristics to be those
issuers that are more established, consistently profitable, and financially
strong, with robust policies in the areas of the environment, social
responsibility, and corporate governance (collectively referred to as
“sustainability”).
The
adviser employs a sustainable rating system based on its own, as well as
third-party, data to identify issuers believed to have lower sustainability
risks. The use of third-party data does not include third-party environmental,
social, or governance ("ESG") ratings or criteria established by third parties
for third-party ratings. The adviser’s proprietary scoring system assesses how
well a company performs relative to a blend of its industry, sector, and country
peers. In addition to the financial considerations discussed above, the adviser
considers sustainability practices such as carbon emissions, water usage,
renewable energy, and fair labor and supply chain practices. The Fund’s
sustainability evaluation process considers risks and opportunities
holistically, meaning an issuer will not necessarily be excluded from investment
due to any one particular factor if the overall analysis results in a favorable
evaluation by the adviser. The adviser also uses negative screening to exclude
companies primarily engaged in higher sustainability risk businesses, such as
companies in the business of fossil fuel exploration, production, or refining,
and, to the extent prohibited by Islamic investment principles, companies
primarily engaged in businesses such as alcohol, tobacco, pork products,
pornography, interest-based banks, finance associations and insurers, weapons,
and gambling.
The
Fund is “non-diversified,” which means that it may invest a larger percentage of
its assets in a relatively small number of issuers.
Principal
Risks of Investing
As with all
funds, investing in the Fund entails risks that could cause the Fund and the
Fund’s investors to lose money. The principal risks of investing
in the Fund are as follows:
Market risk: The value of the Fund’s shares rises and falls as
the market value of the securities in which the Fund invests goes up and
down. Consider investing in the Fund only if you are willing to accept the
risk that you may lose money. Fund share prices, yields, and total returns
will change with the fluctuations in the securities markets as well as the
fortunes of the industries and companies in which the Fund
invests.
Investment strategy risk: Islamic principles restrict the Fund’s ability to
invest in certain market sectors, such as financial companies and conventional
fixed-income securities. The adviser believes that Islamic and sustainable
investing may mitigate security-specific risks, but the screens used in
connection with these strategies reduce the investable universe, which may limit
investment opportunities and adversely affect the Fund’s performance. Because
Islamic principles preclude the use of interest-paying instruments, cash
positions do not earn income.
Equity securities risk: Equity securities may experience significant
volatility in response to economic or market conditions or adverse events that
affect a particular industry, sector, or company. Larger companies may have
slower rates of growth as compared to smaller, faster-growing companies, and at
times may be out of favor with investors. Smaller companies may have more
limited financial resources, products, or services, and tend to be more
sensitive to changing economic or market conditions. The Fund also tends to
favor growth stocks, which tend to trade based on future earnings expectations,
and may be more volatile, especially when market expectations are not
met.
Small-cap risk: The smaller and less seasoned companies that may
be in the Fund have a greater risk of price volatility. Growth stocks, which can
be priced on future expectations rather than current results, may decline
substantially when expectations are not met or general market conditions
weaken.
Foreign investing risk: The Fund may invest in securities that are not
traded in the United States when market conditions or investment opportunities
arise that, in the judgment of the investment adviser, warrant such investment.
Investments in the securities of foreign issuers may involve risks in addition
to those normally associated with investments in the securities of US issuers.
All foreign investments are subject to risks of: (1) foreign political and
economic instability; (2) adverse movements in foreign exchange rates; (3)
currency devaluation; (4) the imposition or tightening of exchange controls or
other limitations on repatriation of foreign capital; (5) changes in foreign
governmental attitudes toward private investment, including potential
nationalization, increased taxation, or confiscation of assets; and (6)
differing reporting, accounting, and auditing standards of foreign
countries.
Sector risk: From time to time, based on market or economic
conditions, the Fund may have significant positions in one or more sectors of
the market. To the extent the Fund invests more heavily in particular sectors,
its performance will be especially sensitive to developments that significantly
affect those sectors. Individual sectors may be more volatile, and may perform
differently, than the broader market. The industries that constitute a sector
may all react in the same way to economic, political, or regulatory events which
may cause the Fund's returns to suffer.
Technology sector risk: The Fund’s investments in technology companies
exposes the Fund to risks. For example, rapid advances in science and technology
might cause existing products to become obsolete, and the Fund’s returns could
suffer to the extent it holds an affected company’s shares. A number of
technology companies engaged in consumer-facing activities are potentially
subject to more aggressive government regulation and intervention in their
traditional business activities. This fact may affect a company’s overall
profitability and cause its stock price to be more volatile. Additionally,
technology companies are dependent upon consumer and business acceptance as new
technologies evolve.
ETF risk: As an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”), the Fund is subject
to the following risks:
Authorized Participants
Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited
number of financial institutions that may act as authorized participants
(“APs”). Only APs may transact in creation and redemption transactions directly
with the Fund, and APs are not obligated to engage in such transactions. To the
extent they exit the business or are otherwise unable or unwilling to proceed in
creation and redemption transactions with the Fund, such as in times of market
stress, and no other authorized participant is able to step forward to create or
redeem, trading in Fund shares may be significantly diminished, bid-ask spreads
may widen and shares of the Fund may be more likely to trade at a premium or
discount to net asset value (“NAV”) and possibly face trading halts or
delisting. To the extent the Fund invests in securities issued by non-U.S.
issuers or other securities or instruments that have lower trading volumes, this
risk is heightened.
International Closed Market Trading
Risk: Because certain of the Fund’s
investments trade in markets that are closed when the Fund and the Nasdaq Global
Market (“Exchange”) are open, there are likely to be deviations between the
current prices of such investments and the prices at which such investments are
marked for purposes of the Fund’s NAV (i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed foreign
market). As a result, premiums or discounts to NAV may develop in share prices,
and bid-ask spreads may be greater than those experienced by other funds. In
addition, shareowners may not be able to purchase or redeem their shares of the
Fund, or purchase or sell shares of the Fund on the Exchange, on days when the
NAV of the Fund could be significantly affected by events in the relevant
non-U.S. markets.
Premium-Discount Risk: There may be times when the market price of the Fund’s
shares is more than the NAV intra-day (at a premium) or less than the NAV
intra-day (at a discount). As a result, shareowners of the Fund may pay more
than NAV when purchasing shares and receive less than NAV when selling Fund
shares. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of
steep market declines. In such market conditions, market or stop loss orders to
sell Fund shares may be executed at prices well below NAV.
Secondary Market Trading
Risk: Investors buying or selling shares in
the secondary market will normally pay brokerage commissions, which are often a
fixed amount and may be a significant proportional cost for investors buying or
selling relatively small amounts of shares. Secondary market trading is subject
to bid-ask spreads, which is the difference between the highest price a buyer is
willing to pay to purchase shares of a fund (bid) and the lowest price a seller
is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying or selling shares in the
secondary market, and trading in Fund shares may be halted by the Exchange
because of market conditions or other reasons. If a trading halt occurs, a
shareowner may temporarily be unable to purchase or sell shares of the Fund. The
bid-ask spread, which varies over time, is generally narrower if the Fund has
more trading volume and market liquidity and wider if the Fund has less trading
volume and market liquidity. In addition, the bid-ask spread can be affected by
the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying investments and can widen if the Fund’s
underlying investments become less liquid or illiquid. In addition, although the
Fund’s shares are listed on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an
active trading market for shares will develop or be maintained, that bid-ask
spreads will be narrow, or that the Fund’s shares will continue to be
listed.
Cash Transactions Risk: The Fund may effect redemptions partly or wholly for
cash, rather than through in-kind distributions of securities. Accordingly, the
Fund may be required to sell portfolio securities in order to obtain the cash
needed to distribute redemption proceeds and it may recognize gains on sales of
portfolio holdings. As a result, an investment in the Fund may be less
tax-efficient than an investment in an ETF that primarily or wholly effects
redemptions in-kind. Moreover, cash transactions may have to be carried out over
several days if the securities markets are relatively illiquid at the time the
Fund must sell securities and may involve considerable brokerage fees and taxes.
These brokerage fees and taxes, which will be higher than if the Fund redeemed
its shares principally in-kind, may be passed on to APs in the form of
transaction fees. As a result, the spreads between the bid and the offered
prices of the Fund’s shares may be wider than those of shares of ETFs that
primarily or wholly transact in-kind.
Large Shareowner Risk: Certain shareowners may own a substantial amount of the
Fund’s shares. Redemptions by large shareowners could have a significant
negative impact on the Fund and transactions on the Exchange by large
shareowners may have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of
the shares.
Non-Diversified fund risk:
The Fund may invest a relatively high
percentage of its assets in a single issuer or a limited number of issuers. As a
result, the Fund’s performance will be more vulnerable to changes in market
value of a single issuer or group of issuers and more susceptible to risks
associated with a single adverse economic, political, regulatory or other
occurrence affecting one or more of these issuers. The Fund may experience
greater performance volatility than a fund that is more broadly
invested.
New fund risk: The Fund is new and does not have shares outstanding as
of the date of this Prospectus. The Fund may not be successful in implementing
its investment strategy, and its investment strategy may not be successful under
all future market conditions, either of which could result in the Fund being
liquidated at some future time without shareowner approval and/or at a time that
may not be favorable for certain shareowners. New funds may not attract
sufficient assets to achieve investment, trading or other efficiencies and, if
the Fund does not grow in size, it will be at greater risk than larger funds of
wider bid-ask spreads for its shares, trading at a greater premium or discount
to NAV and/or a stop to trading.
Performance
The Fund had
not commenced operations as of the date of this Prospectus.
Performance information will be available in the Prospectus after the Fund has
been in operation for one full calendar year. When provided,
the information will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the
Fund by showing how the Fund’s average annual returns compare with a broad
measure of market performance. Past
performance does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the
future. Updated performance information will be available at
https://www.saturna.com/products/etf-performance.
Investment
Adviser
Saturna
Capital Corporation is the Fund’s investment adviser (“adviser”).
Portfolio
Managers
Mr. Scott
F. Klimo CFA®, chief investment officer at Saturna Capital Corporation, has been
primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund since its
inception. Mr. Monem A. Salam MBA, executive vice president and portfolio
manager at Saturna Capital Corporation, and Mr. Jason S. Mitchell MBA, a senior
investment analyst of Saturna Capital Corporation, have been deputy portfolio
managers of the Fund since its inception.
Sub-Adviser
Vident
Asset Management is the Fund’s sub-adviser. The sub-adviser is responsible for
trading portfolio securities for the Fund, including selecting broker-dealers to
execute purchase and sale transactions and monitoring of Fund trading activity,
subject to the oversight of the adviser and the Fund’s board of trustees.
Portfolio
Managers
Mr. Austin Wen, CFA®and Ms. Devin Ryder
CFA®, both Senior Portfolio Managers of the
sub-adviser, have sub-advised the Fund since its inception.
Purchase and
Sale of Fund Shares
Individual
shares of the Fund may only be bought and sold in secondary market transactions
through a broker or dealer at a market price. Because the shares trade at market
prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium)
or less than NAV (discount). An investor may incur costs attributable to the
difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase
shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask)
when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (i.e., the bid-ask
spread). Investors can find information on the Fund’s NAV, market price,
premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spread at https://www.saturna.com/products/etf-performance.
Tax
Information
Any
distributions you receive from the Fund may be taxed as ordinary income,
qualified dividend income, or capital gains, unless you are investing through a
tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an IRA. Investment in the
Fund through such an arrangement may be taxed later upon withdrawal of monies
from the arrangement.
Purchases
Through Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If
you purchase shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary
(such as a bank), the adviser or other related companies may pay the
intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments
may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other
intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment.
Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more
information.
Amana
Developing World ETF
Investment
Objective
Long-term
capital growth, consistent with Islamic principles.
Fees and
Expenses
This section
describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of
the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as
brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not
reflected in the table and example below.
Shareowner
Fees
None.
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a
percentage of the value of your
investment):
|
Management Fees |
|
|
0.91% |
|
|
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1)
Fees(1) |
|
|
0.00% |
|
|
Other Expenses(2) |
|
|
0.00% |
|
|
Total Annual Fund
Operating Expenses |
|
|
0.91% |
|
Example
This
example is intended to help investors compare the cost of investing in shares of
the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The example assumes an
investor invests $10,000 in shares of the Fund for the time periods indicated.
The example also assumes that the investment has a 5% return each year and that
the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example does not reflect any
brokerage commissions that an investor may pay on purchases and sales of Fund
shares. Although actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these
assumptions, whether an investor does or does not redeem the shares, an
investor’s expenses would be:
|
One
Year |
Three
Years |
|
|
$93 |
$290 |
|
Portfolio
Turnover
The Fund may
have transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities
(or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in the annual
fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance.
Because the Fund had not yet commenced operations prior to the date of this
Prospectus, it does not have a portfolio turnover rate to
provide.
Principal Investment
Strategies
Under
normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of total net assets in
common stocks of companies with significant exposure to countries with
developing economies and/or markets. A company has significant exposure to
countries with developing economies if: (i) 50% or more of the company’s
production assets are located outside the United States; (ii) 50% or more of the
company’s revenues are generated outside the United States; or (iii) the company
is organized or maintains its principal place of business in countries with
developing economies and/or markets. Production assets are the property or
equipment used by a company. Investment decisions are made in accordance with
Islamic principles. Generally, Islamic principles require that investors share
in profit and loss, that they receive no usury or interest, and that they do not
invest in a business that is prohibited by Islamic principles. To the extent
prohibited by Islamic investment principles the Fund does not invest in
companies primarily engaged in businesses such as alcohol, tobacco, pork
products, pornography, interest-based banks, finance associations and insurers,
weapons, and gambling.
The
Fund does not make any investments not permitted under Islamic principles,
including those that pay interest. Islamic principles discourage speculation.
The Fund tends to hold investments for several years.
By
allowing investments in companies headquartered in more advanced economies yet
having the majority of production assets or revenues in the developing world,
the Fund seeks to reduce its foreign investing risk.
The
Fund principally follows a large-cap value investment style. The Fund seeks
companies demonstrating both Islamic and sustainable characteristics.
The
Fund’s adviser (Saturna Capital Corporation) considers issuers with sustainable
characteristics to be those issuers that are more established, consistently
profitable, and financially strong, with robust policies in the areas of the
environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance (collectively
referred to as “sustainability”).
The
adviser employs a sustainable rating system based on its own, as well as
third-party, data to identify issuers believed to have lower sustainability
risks. The use of third-party data does not include third-party environmental,
social, or governance (“ESG”) ratings or criteria established by third parties
for third-party ratings. The adviser’s proprietary scoring system assesses how
well a company performs relative to a blend of its industry, sector, and country
peers. In addition to the financial considerations discussed above, the adviser
considers sustainability practices such as carbon emissions, water usage,
renewable energy, and fair labor and supply chain practices. The Fund’s
sustainability evaluation process considers risks and opportunities
holistically, meaning an issuer will not necessarily be excluded from investment
due to any one particular factor if the overall analysis results in a favorable
evaluation by the adviser. The adviser also uses negative screening to exclude
companies primarily engaged in higher sustainability risk businesses, such as
companies in the business of fossil fuel exploration, production, or refining,
and, to the extent prohibited by Islamic investment principles, companies
primarily engaged in businesses such as alcohol, tobacco, pork products,
pornography, interest-based banks, finance associations and insurers, weapons,
and gambling.
The
Fund is “non-diversified,” which means that it may invest a larger percentage of
its assets in a relatively small number of issuers.
In
determining whether a country is part of the developing world, the Fund’s
adviser will consider such factors as the country’s per capita gross domestic
product, the percentage of the country’s economy that is industrialized, market
capitalization as a percentage of gross domestic product, the overall regulatory
environment, and limits on foreign ownership and restrictions on repatriation of
initial capital or income.
Through
reference to data provided by various globally recognized organizations such as
the International Monetary Fund, The World Bank, and the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, the adviser maintains a list of countries
it considers to have developing economies and/or markets. The list, which
changes over time, currently includes: Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, China,
Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Ecuador, Greece, Hungary, India,
Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Oman, Panama, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea,
Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, and United Arab
Emirates.
Principal
Risks of Investing
As with all
funds, investing in the Fund entails risks that could cause the Fund and the
Fund’s investors to lose money. The principal risks of investing
in the Fund are as follows:
Market risk: The value of the Fund’s shares rises and falls as
the market value of the securities in which the Fund invests goes up and
down. Consider investing in the Fund only if you are willing to accept the
risk that you may lose money. Fund share prices, yields, and total returns
will change with the fluctuations in the securities markets as well as the
fortunes of the industries and companies in which the Fund
invests.
Investment strategy risk: Islamic principles restrict the Fund’s ability to
invest in certain market sectors, such as financial companies and conventional
fixed-income securities. The adviser believes that Islamic and sustainable
investing may mitigate security-specific risks, but the screens used in
connection with these strategies reduce the investable universe, which may limit
investment opportunities and adversely affect the Fund’s performance. Because
Islamic principles preclude the use of interest-paying instruments, cash
positions do not earn income.
Equity securities risk: Equity securities may experience significant
volatility in response to economic or market conditions or adverse events that
affect a particular industry, sector, or company. Larger companies may have
slower rates of growth as compared to smaller, faster-growing companies. Smaller
companies may have more limited financial resources, products, or services, and
tend to be more sensitive to changing economic or market
conditions.
Developing world and foreign
investing risk: Investments in the
securities of foreign issuers may involve risks in addition to those normally
associated with investments in the securities of US issuers. All foreign
investments are subject to risks of: (1) foreign political and economic
instability; (2) adverse movements in foreign exchange rates; (3) currency
devaluation; (4) the imposition or tightening of exchange controls or other
limitations on repatriation of foreign capital; (5) changes in foreign
governmental attitudes toward private investment, including potential
nationalization, increased taxation, or confiscation of assets; and (6)
differing reporting, accounting, and auditing standards of foreign countries. In
developing markets, these risks are magnified by less mature political systems
and weaker corporate governance standards than typically found in the developed
world.
ETF risk: As an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”), the Fund is subject
to the following risks:
Authorized Participants
Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited
number of financial institutions that may act as authorized participants
(“APs”). Only APs may transact in creation and redemption transactions directly
with the Fund, and APs are not obligated to engage in such transactions. To the
extent they exit the business or are otherwise unable or unwilling to proceed in
creation and redemption transactions with the Fund, such as in times of market
stress, and no other authorized participant is able to step forward to create or
redeem, trading in Fund shares may be significantly diminished, bid-ask spreads
may widen and shares of the Fund may be more likely to trade at a premium or
discount to net asset value (“NAV”) and possibly face trading halts or
delisting. To the extent the Fund invests in securities issued by non-U.S.
issuers or other securities or instruments that have lower trading volumes, this
risk is heightened.
International Closed Market Trading
Risk: Because certain of the Fund’s
investments trade in markets that are closed when the Fund and the Nasdaq Global
Market (“Exchange”) are open, there are likely to be deviations between the
current prices of such investments and the prices at which such investments are
marked for purposes of the Fund’s NAV (i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed foreign
market). As a result, premiums or discounts to NAV may develop in share prices,
and bid-ask spreads may be greater than those experienced by other funds. In
addition, shareowners may not be able to purchase or redeem their shares of the
Fund, or purchase or sell shares of the Fund on the Exchange, on days when the
NAV of the Fund could be significantly affected by events in the relevant
non-U.S. markets.
Premium-Discount Risk: There may be times when the market price of the Fund’s
shares is more than the NAV intra-day (at a premium) or less than the NAV
intra-day (at a discount). As a result, shareowners of the Fund may pay more
than NAV when purchasing shares and receive less than NAV when selling Fund
shares. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of
steep market declines. In such market conditions, market or stop loss orders to
sell Fund shares may be executed at prices well below NAV.
Secondary Market Trading
Risk: Investors buying or selling shares in
the secondary market will normally pay brokerage commissions, which are often a
fixed amount and may be a significant proportional cost for investors buying or
selling relatively small amounts of shares. Secondary market trading is subject
to bid-ask spreads, which is the difference between the highest price a buyer is
willing to pay to purchase shares of a fund (bid) and the lowest price a seller
is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying or selling shares in the
secondary market, and trading in Fund shares may be halted by the Exchange
because of market conditions or other reasons. If a trading halt occurs, a
shareowner may temporarily be unable to purchase or sell shares of the Fund. The
bid-ask spread, which varies over time, is generally narrower if the Fund has
more trading volume and market liquidity and wider if the Fund has less trading
volume and market liquidity. In addition, the bid-ask spread can be affected by
the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying investments and can widen if the Fund’s
underlying investments become less liquid or illiquid. In addition, although the
Fund’s shares are listed on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an
active trading market for shares will develop or be maintained, that bid-ask
spreads will be narrow, or that the Fund’s shares will continue to be
listed.
Cash Transactions Risk: The Fund may effect redemptions partly or wholly for
cash, rather than through in-kind distributions of securities. Accordingly, the
Fund may be required to sell portfolio securities in order to obtain the cash
needed to distribute redemption proceeds and it may recognize gains on sales of
portfolio holdings. As a result, an investment in the Fund may be less
tax-efficient than an investment in an ETF that primarily or wholly effects
redemptions in-kind. Moreover, cash transactions may have to be carried out over
several days if the securities markets are relatively illiquid at the time the
Fund must sell securities and may involve considerable brokerage fees and taxes.
These brokerage fees and taxes, which will be higher than if the Fund redeemed
its shares principally in-kind, may be passed on to APs in the form of
transaction fees. As a result, the spreads between the bid and the offered
prices of the Fund’s shares may be wider than those of shares of ETFs that
primarily or wholly transact in-kind.
Large Shareowner Risk: Certain shareowners may own a substantial amount of the
Fund’s shares. Redemptions by large shareowners could have a significant
negative impact on the Fund and transactions on the Exchange by large
shareowners may have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of
the shares.
Non-Diversified fund risk:
The Fund may invest a relatively high
percentage of its assets in a single issuer or a limited number of issuers. As a
result, the Fund’s performance will be more vulnerable to changes in market
value of a single issuer or group of issuers and more susceptible to risks
associated with a single adverse economic, political, regulatory or other
occurrence affecting one or more of these issuers. The Fund may experience
greater performance volatility than a fund that is more broadly
invested.
New fund risk: The Fund is new and does not have shares outstanding as
of the date of this Prospectus. The Fund may not be successful in implementing
its investment strategy, and its investment strategy may not be successful under
all future market conditions, either of which could result in the Fund being
liquidated at some future time without shareowner approval and/or at a time that
may not be favorable for certain shareowners. New funds may not attract
sufficient assets to achieve investment, trading or other efficiencies and, if
the Fund does not grow in size, it will be at greater risk than larger funds of
wider bid-ask spreads for its shares, trading at a greater premium or discount
to NAV and/or a stop to trading.
Performance
The Fund had
not commenced operations as of the date of this Prospectus.
Performance information will be available in the Prospectus after the Fund has
been in operation for one full calendar year. When provided,
the information will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the
Fund by showing how the Fund’s average annual returns compare with a broad
measure of market performance. Past
performance does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the
future. Updated performance information will be available at
https://www.saturna.com/products/etf-performance.
Investment
Adviser
Saturna
Capital Corporation is the Fund’s investment adviser (“adviser”).
Portfolio
Managers
Mr.
Monem A. Salam MBA, executive vice president and portfolio manager at Saturna
Capital Corporation, has been primarily responsible for the day-to-day
management of the Fund since its inception. Mr. Levi Stewart Zurbrugg MBA,
CFA®,
CPA®, a
senior investment analyst and portfolio manager at Saturna Capital Corporation,
has been deputy portfolio manager for the Fund since its inception.
Sub-Adviser
Vident
Asset Management is the Fund’s sub-adviser. The sub-adviser is responsible for
trading portfolio securities for the Fund, including selecting broker-dealers to
execute purchase and sale transactions and monitoring of Fund trading activity,
subject to the oversight of the adviser and the Fund’s board of trustees.
Portfolio
Managers
Mr.
Austin Wen, CFA® and Ms. Devin Ryder CFA®, both Senior Portfolio Managers of the
sub-adviser, have sub-advised the Fund since its inception.
Purchase and
Sale of Fund Shares
Individual
shares of the Fund may only be bought and sold in secondary market transactions
through a broker or dealer at a market price. Because the shares trade at market
prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium)
or less than NAV (discount). An investor may incur costs attributable to the
difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase
shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask)
when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (i.e., the bid-ask
spread). Investors can find information on the Fund’s NAV, market price,
premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spread at https://www.saturna.com/products/etf-performance.
Tax
Information
Any
distributions you receive from the Fund may be taxed as ordinary income,
qualified dividend income, or capital gains, unless you are investing through a
tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an IRA. Investment in the
Fund through such an arrangement may be taxed later upon withdrawal of monies
from the arrangement.
Purchases
Through Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you
purchase shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as
a bank), the adviser or other related companies may pay the intermediary for the
sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict
of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your
salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson
or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
ABOUT THE FUNDS
Investment
Objective
The
objectives of the Equity Income ETF are current income and preservation of
capital, consistent with Islamic principles; current income is its primary
objective.
The
primary objective of the Growth ETF is long-term capital growth, consistent with
Islamic principles.
The
primary objective of the Developing World ETF is long-term capital growth,
consistent with Islamic principles.
There
can be no guarantee that the particular investment objectives of a Fund will be
realized. These investment objectives may only be changed with approval by vote
of a majority of the outstanding shares of a Fund.
Additional
Information About the Funds’ Principal Investment Strategies
The
Amana ETFs are designed to provide investment alternatives that are consistent
with Islamic principles. Generally, Islamic principles require that investors
share in profit and loss, that they receive no usury or interest, and that they
do not invest in a business that is prohibited by Islamic principles. To the
extent prohibited by Islamic investment principles the Funds do not invest in
companies primarily engaged in businesses such as tobacco, alcoholic beverages,
pornography, insurance, gambling, pork products, and interest-based insurers,
banks or finance associations.
The Funds do not make any
investments that pay interest. Islamic principles discourage speculation, and
the Funds tend to hold investments for several years. The Equity Income ETF
may invest its uninvested cash in short-term Islamic income-producing
investments called murabaha and wakala.
These
criteria limit investment selection and income-earning opportunities more than
is customary for mutual funds.
The
Funds’ investment adviser, Saturna Capital Corporation, selects investments
based on its own security selection policies and compliance policies and
procedures. The adviser engages Amanie Advisors Sdn Bhd, a leading consultant
specializing in Islamic finance, who reviews, and consults on, the investment
adviser’s compliance policies and procedures so that the investment adviser can
ensure that the Funds’ investments meet the requirements of the Islamic
faith.
The Amana ETFs favor investing in
companies trading for less than the adviser’s assessment of intrinsic value,
which typically means companies with relatively low price/earning multiples,
strong balance sheets, and proven businesses. Once a Fund holds a position in a
company, the Fund actively monitors market conditions, industry developments,
and other factors that may affect the company or the Fund’s rationale for
holding the investment. Although the Funds consider valuation when monitoring their
investments, a Fund may not necessarily liquidate a position solely because of
relatively high valuation. The Funds actively monitor their investment
portfolios but do not engage in high turnover or speculative trading. The Equity
Income, Growth, and Developing World ETFs seek companies demonstrating both
Islamic and sustainable characteristics. To the extent prohibited by Islamic
principles or the adviser’s sustainability criteria, the adviser uses negative
screening to exclude issuers primarily engaged in the following
activities:
|
• Alcohol |
• Tobacco |
|
• Pork
products |
• Pornography |
|
• Interest-based
banks |
• Financial associations and
insurers |
|
• Weapons |
• Gambling |
In
selecting equity securities, the adviser employs a sustainable rating system
based on its own, as well as third-party, data to identify issuers believed to
have robust policies in the areas of the environment, social responsibility, and
corporate governance (collectively referred to as “sustainability”) to identify
issuers believed to have lower sustainability risks.
The
use of third-party data does not include third-party environmental, social, or
governance (“ESG”) ratings or criteria established by third parties for
third-party ratings. The adviser’s proprietary scoring system assesses how well
a company performs relative to a blend of its industry, sector, and country
peers. In addition to financial and non-financial sustainability considerations
(such as carbon emissions, water usage, renewable energy, and fair labor and
supply chain practices), the adviser’s sustainability evaluation process
considers risks and opportunities holistically, meaning an issuer will not
necessarily be excluded from investment due to any one particular factor if the
overall analysis results in a favorable evaluation by the adviser. The adviser
positively screens for issuers that show management stability, capability, and
diversity, low debt, strong balance sheets, high-quality operations, cash flow,
and a long-term focus. With respect to Islamic fixed income securities, the
adviser’s securities analysts utilize the foregoing process as inputs into the
adviser’s fundamental analysis of the sustainability risks of Islamic fixed
income securities in choosing securities that comply with the Funds’
sustainability screening. The exclusion of fossil fuel exploration, production
or refining does not apply to the Funds’ Islamic fixed income investments.
During
uncertain or adverse market, economic, political, or other conditions, or the
unavailability of attractive investment opportunities, a Fund may adopt a
temporary defensive position. The Funds cannot invest in interest-paying
instruments frequently used by other funds for this purpose. When markets are
unattractive or attractive investments are unavailable, the adviser chooses
between continuing to follow the Funds’ investment policies or converting
securities to cash or cash equivalents for temporary, defensive purposes. This
choice is based on the adviser’s evaluation of market conditions and a Fund’s
portfolio holdings. Temporary defensive holdings will be non-interest bearing
and may, in whole or in part, not be insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC). In the event a Fund takes such a position, it may not be
able to achieve its investment objective.
Equity
Income ETF
It
is the policy of the Equity Income ETF, under normal circumstances, to invest at
least 80% of its total net assets in income-producing equity securities,
primarily dividend-paying common stocks. The Equity Income ETF may invest in
foreign securities. Typically, foreign securities are equity or debt securities
issued by entities organized, domiciled, or with a principal executive office
outside the United States, such as foreign corporations and governments. Foreign
securities may trade in U.S. or foreign securities markets. A fund may make
foreign investments either directly by purchasing foreign securities or
indirectly by purchasing depositary receipts or depositary shares of similar
instruments (depositary receipts) for foreign securities. Direct investments in
foreign securities may be made either on foreign securities exchanges or in the
over-the-counter (OTC) markets.
The
Fund is non-diversified and may invest a larger percentage of its assets in
fewer issuers, which may cause the Fund to experience more volatility than
diversified funds.
While
cash assets do not contribute to the Equity Income ETF’s primary objective of
current income, they do assist its secondary objective of preservation of
capital. The Fund intends to manage its cash positions by investing in
short-term Islamic income-producing investments.
Growth
ETF
It
is the policy of the Growth ETF, under normal circumstances, to invest at least
80% of total net assets in common stocks that the adviser believes exhibit
growth characteristics. The adviser considers a stock to exhibit growth
characteristics if, at the time of investment, the stock’s anticipated revenue,
earnings, or cash flow growth rate exceeds the nominal growth rate of the
U.S. economy over a horizon of at least three years. The Growth ETF may invest
in foreign securities. Typically, foreign securities are equity or debt
securities issued by entities organized, domiciled, or with a principal
executive office outside the United States, such as foreign corporations and
governments. Foreign securities may trade in U.S. or foreign securities markets.
A fund may make foreign investments either directly by purchasing foreign
securities or indirectly by purchasing depositary receipts or depositary shares
of similar instruments (depositary receipts) for foreign securities. Direct
investments in foreign securities may be made either on foreign securities
exchanges or in the over-the-counter (OTC) markets.
The
Fund is non-diversified and may invest a larger percentage of its assets in
fewer issuers, which may cause the Fund to experience more volatility than
diversified funds.
Cash
assets may contribute to the Growth ETF’s objective of long-term capital growth
by reducing capital losses that might have occurred had the Growth ETF been
fully invested during periods of market decline.
Developing
World ETF
It
is the policy of the Developing World ETF, under normal circumstances, to invest
at least 80% of total net assets in common stocks of companies with significant
exposure to countries with developing economies and/or markets.
The
Developing World ETF may invest in equity securities of any company, regardless
of where it is based, if the adviser determines that the company has significant
exposure to countries with developing economies and/or markets. A company has
significant exposure to countries with developing economies if: (i) 50% or more
of the company’s production assets are located outside the United States; (ii)
50% or more of the company’s revenues are generated outside the United States;
or (iii) the company is organized or maintains its principal place of business
in countries with developing economies and/or markets.
Through
reference to data provided by various globally recognized organizations such as
the International Monetary Fund, The World Bank, and the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, the adviser maintains a list of countries
it considers to have developing economies and/or markets. The list, which
changes over time, currently includes Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, China,
Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Ecuador, Greece, Hungary, India,
Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Oman, Panama, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea,
Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, and United Arab Emirates.
The
Fund is non-diversified and may invest a larger percentage of its assets in
fewer issuers, which may cause the Fund to experience more volatility than
diversified funds.
Cash
assets may contribute to the Developing World ETF’s objective of long-term
capital growth by reducing capital losses that might have occurred had the
Developing World ETF been fully invested during periods of market decline.
Equity
Income ETF - Investments in Wholly-Owned Subsidiary
The
Equity Income ETF may invest up to 20% of its total net assets in its Subsidiary
for the purpose of gaining exposure to Islamic income-producing investments
(murabaha and wakala) for its cash positions. Under normal conditions, the
Fund’s Subsidiary, whose principal investment strategy and risks are identical
to those of the Equity Income ETF, invests in murabaha, and wakala. The
Subsidiary complies with provisions of the Investment Company Act of 1940
relating to affiliated transactions and custody (Section 17). The Internal
Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, limits the investments of the Equity Income
ETF, in its Subsidiary to no more than 25% of the Fund’s total net assets, as
measured at the end of each quarter of the Fund’s taxable year. The Subsidiary
is organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands and is wholly-owned and
controlled by the Fund. The Equity Income ETF invests in its Subsidiary in order
to gain exposure to the investment returns of murabaha, and wakala within the
limitations of the federal tax law requirements applicable to regulated
investment companies. The Subsidiary is accounted for on a consolidated basis
with the Fund. The Equity Income ETF complies with the provisions of the
Investment Company Act of 1940 governing investment policies (Section 8) on an
aggregate basis with its Subsidiary and, in particular, with the same
requirements relating to liquidity, and the timing and method of valuation of
portfolio investments and shares described elsewhere in this Prospectus and in
the Statement of Additional Information (SAI). The Equity Income ETF complies
with the provisions of the Investment Company Act of 1940 governing capital
structure and leverage (Section 18) on an aggregate basis with its Subsidiary so
that the Fund treats the Subsidiary’s debt as its own for purposes of Section
18.
The
Equity Income ETF does not intend to create or to acquire primary control of any
entity which primarily engages in investment activities in securities or other
assets, other than entities wholly-owned by the Fund (“primarily controlled”
means (1) the registered fund controls the unregistered entity within the
meaning of Section 2(a)(9) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, and (2) the
registered fund’s control of the unregistered entity is greater than that of any
other person).
The
Equity Income ETF is the sole shareowner of its Subsidiary and does not expect
shares of its Subsidiary to be offered or sold to other investors.
Additional
Information about the Funds’ Principal Risks
All
investments, including those in ETFs, entail risks that could cause a Fund and
the Fund’s investors to lose money. The risks identified below are the principal
risks of investing in the Funds. The summary section for each Fund lists the
principal risks applicable to the Fund.
Investing
in securities entails both market risks and risk of price variation in
individual securities. Islamic principles restrict the Funds’ ability to invest
in certain stocks and market sectors, such as financial companies and
conventional fixed-income securities. This may limit investment opportunities
and may adversely affect the Funds’ performance.
Equity
Income ETF, Growth ETF, and Developing World ETF
Sustainable investing
risk: Applying sustainability criteria
(“Sustainability Criteria”) to the investment process may exclude or reduce
exposure to securities of certain issuers, which could limit the Funds’
opportunity set compared to funds that do not use Sustainability Criteria, and
the Funds’ performance may at times be better or worse than the performance of
funds that do not use Sustainability Criteria. Sustainability Criteria data,
including data obtained from third-party providers, may be incomplete,
inaccurate, inconsistent, or unavailable, which could adversely affect the
analysis of a particular investment. It is possible that the investments
identified by the Funds’ adviser (Saturna Capital Corporation) as being aligned
with its Sustainability Criteria will not perform as expected. The adviser could
sell such positions at a disadvantageous time if an issuer no longer meets the
Sustainability Criteria. While the adviser’s views on Sustainability Criteria
comport with Islamic investment principles, investors may differ in their view
of Sustainability Criteria. Thus, the Funds may invest in issuers that do not
reflect the views of any particular investor. The regulatory landscape with
respect to Sustainability Criteria is still under development. Future
regulations and/or rules adopted by applicable regulators could require the
Funds to change or adjust their investment process with respect to the
Sustainability Criteria. The adviser does not apply Sustainability Criteria to
the Islamic income-producing investments (murabaha and wakala).
Non-Diversified fund risk:
A non-diversified Fund may invest a
relatively high percentage of its assets in a single issuer or a limited number
of issuers. As a result, the Fund’s performance will be more vulnerable to
changes in market value of a single issuer or group of issuers and more
susceptible to risks associated with a single adverse economic, political,
regulatory or other occurrence affecting one or more of these issuers. The Fund
may experience greater performance volatility than a fund that is more broadly
invested.
Growth
ETF, Developing World ETF
Growth investing: The Funds may invest primarily in growth stocks, which
may be more volatile than slower-growing value stocks. Growth stocks typically
trade at higher multiples of current earnings than other stocks, which may lead
to inflated prices. Growth stocks often are more sensitive to market
fluctuations than other securities because their market prices are highly
sensitive to future earnings expectations. At times when it appears that these
expectations may not be met, growth stocks’ prices typically fall, and declines
may be significant when a stock had been supported by significant investor
speculation. During market cycles when growth investing is out of favor, selling
growth stocks at desired prices may be more difficult.
Developing
World ETF
Developing market
risk: Investing in countries of the
developing world may involve risks in addition to and greater than those
generally associated with investing in developed countries. For instance,
developing countries may have less developed legal and accounting systems. The
governments of these countries may be more unstable and more likely to impose
capital controls, nationalize a company or industry, place restrictions on
foreign ownership and on withdrawing sale proceeds of securities from the
country, and/or impose punitive taxes that could adversely affect security
prices. In addition, the economies of these countries may be dependent on
relatively few industries that are more susceptible to local and global changes.
Securities markets in these countries are also relatively small and have
substantially lower trading volumes. As a result, securities issued in these
countries may be more volatile and less liquid than securities issued in
countries with more developed economies or markets.
All
Funds
Market risk: The market value of securities will fluctuate, sometimes
significantly and unpredictably. The securities markets are also susceptible to
data imprecision, technology malfunctions, operational errors, and similar
factors that may adversely affect a single issuer, a group of issuers, an
industry, or the market as a whole. Changes in value may be temporary or may
last for extended periods. A slow-growing economy, or an inflationary or a
recessionary environment, may adversely impact securities markets and prices of
securities in which the Funds invest. Economies and financial markets throughout
the world are becoming increasingly interconnected. Local, regional, or global
events such as civil disobedience, insurrection, war, acts of terrorism, the
spread of infectious disease or other public health issues, or other events
could have a significant impact on the Funds and their investments. As a result,
events or conditions that impact the economies or securities markets may
adversely impact the Funds even if they are not invested primarily in those
economies or markets.
Active management
risk: Despite strategies designed to
achieve the Funds’ investment objectives, the value of investments will change
with market conditions. Securities selected for the Funds may not perform as
Saturna Capital Corporation, the Funds’ adviser, expects. Additionally,
securities selected may cause the Funds to underperform relative to other funds
with similar investment objectives and strategies. There is no guarantee that
the adviser will effectively assess the Funds’ portfolio characteristics and it
is possible that its judgments regarding the Funds’ exposures may prove
incorrect. In addition, actions taken to manage the Funds’ exposures, including
risk, may be ineffective and/or cause the Funds to underperform.
Fundamental investing
risk: A fundamental investment
approach uses research and analysis of a variety of factors to select
securities. That research and analysis may be incorrect or, if correct, may not
be reflected by the market. Fundamental analysis is inherently subject to the
risk of nobody being able to identify all the relevant factors. In addition, the
macro-economic factors considered by the Funds’ adviser may be difficult to
evaluate or implement. Fundamental investing is also inherently subject to
differences between the prices of securities and their value as determined by a
fundamental investment approach. A fundamental investment approach may cause the
Funds to underperform other funds with similar investment objectives and
investment strategies even in a rising market.
Significant positions
risk: The Funds invest according to
varying investment objectives, and no Fund attempts to replicate a broad index.
Seeking to outperform both broad indices and other funds, the Funds generally
overweight positions in various sectors, industries, and issuers. In pursuing
its respective investment objectives, for example, the Growth ETF may overweight
the technology sector. Significant positions in sectors, industries, and issuers
will wax and wane over time. Adverse developments in a Fund’s holdings may have
a greater impact on a Fund that has an overweight position than a fund or index
that is not similarly overweight a sector, industry, or issuer.
The
types of investments favored by the markets also change over time, and a Fund’s
investment style may hinder its comparative returns. Inflationary periods tend
to favor newer, more volatile issuers than those that weather recessions and
deflation. The Amana ETFs’ investment style allows significant positions in
established issuers, industries, and sectors and they may underperform during
periods of loose fiscal and monetary policies.
Foreign investing
risk: Investments in the securities of
foreign issuers may involve risks in addition to those normally associated with
investments in the securities of US issuers. All foreign investments are subject
to risks of: (1) foreign political and economic instability; (2) adverse
movements in foreign exchange rates; (3) currency devaluation; (4) the
imposition or tightening of exchange controls or other limitations on
repatriation of foreign capital; (5) changes in foreign governmental attitudes
toward private investment, including potential nationalization, increased
taxation, or confiscation of assets; and (6) differing reporting, accounting,
and auditing standards of foreign countries. In developing markets, these risks
are magnified by less mature political systems and weaker corporate governance
standards than typically found in the developed world.
Credit risk: Investing in certificates, notes, and similar securities
subjects the Funds to credit risk, which is the risk that a security issuer may
not be able pay its obligations when due, thus reducing the value of a Fund’s
portfolio holdings.
Interest rate risk: The Funds do not invest in interest bearing investments.
However, since murabaha and wakala are Islamic fixed-income investments, the
financial and economic data associated with interest bearing investments
similarly affect the yields and returns on murabaha and wakala. Investing in
securities related to the fixed-income markets subjects the Funds to interest
rate risk, which is the risk that a rise in prevailing interest rates generally
causes the price of such securities to fall.
Subsidiary risk (Equity Income ETF
only): By investing in a Subsidiary,
the Fund is subject to the risks associated with the Subsidiary’s investments.
The Subsidiary is not registered with the SEC as an investment company under the
1940 Act, and is not subject to the investor protections of the 1940 Act. As an
investor in its respective Subsidiary, the Fund does not have the same
protections offered to shareowners of registered investment
companies.
The
Fund and its Subsidiary may not be able to operate as described in this
Prospectus in the event of changes to the laws of the United States or the
Cayman Islands. If the laws of the Cayman Islands required the Subsidiary to pay
taxes to a governmental authority, the Fund would be likely to suffer decreased
returns. The tax treatment of the Fund’s investments in the Subsidiary may be
adversely affected by future legislation, court decisions, Treasury Regulations
and/or guidance issued by the IRS that could affect whether income derived from
such investments is “qualifying income” under Subchapter M of the Internal
Revenue Code, or otherwise affect the character, timing, and/or amount of the
Funds’ taxable income or any gains or distributions made by the Fund.
Tax risk (Equity Income ETF
only): To qualify as a regulated
investment company (“RIC”), a Fund must meet certain requirements concerning the
source of its income. The Fund’s investment in its Subsidiary is intended to
provide exposure to investments in a manner that is consistent with the
“qualifying income” requirement applicable to RICs. Failure to qualify as a RIC
could subject a Fund to adverse tax consequences, including a federal income tax
on its net income at regular corporate rates, as well as a tax to shareowners on
such income when distributed as an ordinary dividend.
The
Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has issued regulations providing that income
inclusions from a RIC subsidiary such as each Subsidiary will constitute
qualifying income for the RIC whether or not the income is distributed to the
RIC. These regulations are consistent with the conclusions in private letter
rulings the IRS had previously issued, and they remove the uncertainty that
existed as a result of earlier proposed regulations providing that only
distributions a subsidiary makes to the RIC out of its earnings and profits for
the applicable tax year would so qualify. The tax treatment of a Fund’s
investment in its respective Subsidiary may be adversely affected by future
legislation, court decisions, Treasury Regulations, and/ or guidance issued by
the IRS that could affect whether income derived from such investments is
“qualifying income” under Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code or otherwise
affect the character, timing, and/ or amount of a Fund’s taxable income or any
gains or distributions made by a Fund.
Murabaha risk (Equity Income ETF
only): The Fund may invest in
murabaha. A murabaha transaction involves a purchase and deferred-payment resale
of an asset. The asset is typically purchased by an Islamic bank as agent for
the Fund. The bank, acting as the Fund’s agent, immediately resells the asset to
a previously identified third party who agrees to repay the Fund’s cost for the
asset plus a profit. Murabaha investments are subject to market risk
(fluctuating prices and exchange rates), credit risk, and operational risk
(errors in processes).
Wakala risk (Equity Income ETF
only): The Fund may invest in wakala.
Wakala, which means “agency agreement” are Islamic finance instruments.
Typically, a bank, as agent, raises funds for investment in various activities.
As agent, the bank monitors these investment activities. The bank and investors,
like the Fund, share in the profit and risk of loss with respect to these
investment activities.
ETF risk: As ETFs, the Funds are subject to the following
risks:
Authorized Participants
Concentration Risk: The Funds may have a
limited number of financial institutions that may act as APs. Only APs who have
entered into agreements with the Funds’ distributor may engage in creation or
redemption transactions directly with the Funds. To the extent that those APs
exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders,
and no other AP is able to step forward to create and redeem in either of those
cases, Fund shares may trade like closed-end fund shares at a discount to NAV
and possibly face delisting from the Exchange.
Cash Transactions Risk: The Funds may effect creations and redemptions partly or
wholly for cash, rather than through in-kind distributions of securities. To the
extent a Fund effects creations and redemptions partly or wholly in cash, an
investment in the Fund may be less tax-efficient than an investment in an ETF
that effects creations and redemptions primarily or wholly in-kind. ETFs
generally are able to make in-kind redemptions and thereby avoid being taxed on
gains on the distributed portfolio securities at the Fund level. Because a Fund
may effect redemptions partly or wholly for cash, rather than in-kind, it may be
required to sell portfolio securities in order to obtain the cash needed to
distribute redemption proceeds, which involves transaction costs. If the Fund
realizes a gain on these sales, the Fund generally will be required to recognize
a gain it might not otherwise have recognized, or to recognize such gain sooner
than would otherwise be required if it were to distribute portfolio securities
in-kind. The Fund generally distributes these gains to shareowners to avoid
capital gains taxes at the Fund level and the need to otherwise comply with the
special tax rules that apply to such gains. This strategy may cause shareowners
to be subject to tax on gains to which they would not otherwise be subject, or
at an earlier date than if they had made an investment in a different ETF.
Moreover, cash transactions may have to be carried out over several days if the
securities markets are relatively illiquid at the time the Fund must sell
securities and may involve considerable brokerage fees and taxes. These
brokerage fees and taxes, which will be higher than if the Fund sold and
redeemed its shares principally in-kind, will be passed on to purchasers and
redeemers of Creation Units in the form of creation and redemption transaction
fees. As a result of these factors, the spreads between the bid and the offered
prices of a Fund’s shares may be wider than those of shares of ETFs that
primarily or wholly transact in-kind.
International Closed Market Trading
Risk: Because certain of the Funds’ investments trade in
markets that are closed when the Funds and Exchange are open, there are likely
to be deviations between the current prices of such investments and the prices
at which such investments are marked for purposes of a Fund’s NAV. As a result,
shares may appear to trade at a significant discount or premium to
NAV.
Large Shareowner Risk: Certain shareowners may own a substantial amount of a
Fund’s shares. In addition, a third party investor, an authorized participant, a
lead market maker, or another entity may invest in a Fund and hold its
investment for a limited period of time solely to facilitate commencement of the
Fund or to facilitate the Fund’s achieving a specified size or scale. There can
be no assurance that any large shareowner would not redeem its investment.
Dispositions of a large number of shares by these shareowners may adversely
affect a Fund’s liquidity and net assets to the extent such transactions are
executed directly with the Fund in the form of redemptions through an authorized
participant, rather than executed in the secondary market. These redemptions may
also force a Fund to sell portfolio securities when it might not otherwise do
so, which may negatively impact the Fund’s NAV and increase the Fund’s brokerage
costs. To the extent these large shareowners transact in Fund shares on the
secondary market, such transactions may account for a large percentage of the
trading volume on the Exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or
downward effect on the market price of the shares.
Premium-Discount Risk: The Funds’ shares may trade above or below their NAV.
Accordingly, investors may pay more than NAV when purchasing shares or receive
less than NAV when selling shares. The NAV of a Fund will generally fluctuate
with changes in the market value of the Fund’s holdings. The market prices of
shares, however, will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in NAV as
well as the relative supply of, and demand for, shares on the Exchange. The
trading price of shares may deviate significantly from NAV during periods of
market volatility. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that
supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for shares will
be closely related to, but not identical to, the same forces influencing the
prices of the securities held by a Fund. The market price of shares may also
fluctuate in accordance with changes in the liquidity, or the perceived
liquidity, of a Fund’s holdings, and a decrease, or a perceived decrease, in
such liquidity may lead to increased divergence between the shares’ market price
and NAV. Such divergence is more likely under stressed market
conditions.
Secondary Market Trading
Risk: Investors buying or selling Fund shares in the secondary
market will generally pay brokerage commissions or other charges imposed by
brokers as determined by that broker. Brokerage commissions are often a fixed
amount and may be a significant proportional cost for investors seeking to buy
or sell relatively small amounts of shares. In addition, secondary market
investors will also incur the cost of the difference between the price that an
investor is willing to pay for shares (the “bid” price) and the price at which
an investor is willing to sell shares (the “ask” price). This difference in bid
and ask prices is often referred to as the “spread” or “bid/ask spread.” The
bid/ask spread varies over time for shares based on trading volume and market
liquidity, and is generally lower if shares have more trading volume and market
liquidity and higher if shares have little trading volume and market liquidity.
Further, increased market volatility may cause increased bid/ask spreads.
Although shares are listed on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an
active or liquid trading market for them will develop or be maintained or that
the shares will continue to be listed. Market makers are not obligated to make a
market, nor are APs obligated to purchase shares. In times of market stress,
market makers and APs can refrain from these activities and any such absences
can lead to greater premiums and discounts. In addition, trading in Fund shares
on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in
the view of the Exchange, make trading in shares inadvisable. Further, trading
in shares on the Exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary
market volatility pursuant to the Exchange “circuit breaker” rules. There can be
no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the
listing of a Fund will continue to be met or will remain unchanged.
Operational
Risk (All Funds)
An
investment in an Amana ETF, like any fund, can involve operational risks arising
from factors such as processing errors, human errors, inadequate or failed
internal or external processes, failure in systems and technology, changes in
personnel, and errors caused by third-party service providers. A Fund may be
affected by international, US, state, or local political events, including the
action or inaction of governments, their instrumentalities, or
quasi-governmental organizations, which may negatively impact economic
conditions and businesses’ operating environments. Future government regulation
and/or intervention could also change the way in which a Fund is regulated or
affect the expenses incurred directly by a Fund. Regulatory uncertainty and
political or governmental action or inaction may affect the value of a Fund’s
investments, and limit and/or preclude a Fund’s ability to achieve its
investment objective. Other disruptive events may include, but are not limited
to, natural disasters, public health events, labor shortages, supply chain
interruptions, and other destabilizing events that adversely affect a Fund’s, or
their service providers’ ability to conduct business. The Funds seek to minimize
such events through controls and oversight, but there may still be events or
failures that could cause losses to the Funds. In addition, as the use of
technology increases, the Funds may be more susceptible to operational risks
through intentional and unintentional breaches in cyber security. A breach in
cyber security may cause the Funds or their service providers to lose
proprietary information or operational capacity or suffer data corruption. As a
result, the Funds may incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage,
additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures, and/or
financial loss. The Funds and their service providers may also maintain
sensitive information (including relating to personally identifiable information
of investors) and a cyber security breach may cause such information to be lost,
improperly accessed, used, or disclosed.
Please
refer to the Funds’ Statement of Additional Information for further details
about the risks of investing in the Funds.
Saturna
Capital Corporation, 1300 N. State Street, Bellingham, Washington 98225, is each
Fund’s investment adviser and administrator (“adviser”). Founded in 1989,
Saturna Capital Corporation has approximately $10.5 billion in assets under
management. It is also the adviser to four other mutual funds that are series of
Amana Mutual Funds Trust, to another investment company, Saturna Investment
Trust, and to separately managed accounts.
The
adviser is responsible for overseeing the management and business affairs of the
Funds, and has discretion to purchase and sell securities in accordance with the
Funds’ respective objectives, policies, and restrictions, subject to the
authority of and supervision by the Board of Trustees. The adviser continuously
reviews, supervises, and administers the Funds’ investment programs. The adviser
has entered into an investment advisory agreement (“Advisory Agreement”) with
respect to each Fund. Pursuant to that Advisory Agreement, each Fund pays the
adviser an annual advisory fee based on its average daily net assets for the
services and facilities it provides payable at the annual rates set forth
below:
|
Fund |
Advisory
Fee |
|
Amana
Equity Income ETF |
0.76
% |
|
Amana
Growth ETF |
0.61
% |
|
Amana
Developing World ETF |
0.91
% |
The
adviser agrees to pay all expenses of the Funds, except for the (i) the
compensation payable to the adviser under the Advisory Agreement, (ii) payments
under a Fund’s Rule 12b-1 plan, if applicable, (iii) brokerage and similar
portfolio management expenses, (iv) acquired fund fees and expenses, (v)
liquidation or termination expenses, (vi) taxes (including, but not limited to,
income, excise, transaction, transfer and withholding taxes), and (vii)
litigation expenses and other extraordinary expenses (including litigation to
which the Trust or a Fund may be a party and indemnification of the Trustees and
officers with respect thereto).
A
discussion regarding the basis for the Board of Trustees’ approval of the
Advisory Agreement with respect to each will be available in the Funds’ Form
N-CSR for the period ending November 30, 2026.
Vident Advisory, LLC, 1125
Sanctuary Parkway, Suite 515, Alpharetta, Georgia 30009, serves as the
sub-adviser to each Fund. As of April 30, 2026, the sub-adviser had
approximately $25.6 billion under management. The sub-adviser is responsible for
trading portfolio securities for each Fund, including selecting broker-dealers
to execute purchase and sale transactions or in connection with any rebalancing
or reconstitution of the portfolio, pre- and post-trade compliance, and
monitoring of Fund trading activity, subject to the oversight of the adviser and
the Fund’s board of trustees.
The adviser has entered into an
investment sub-advisory agreement (“Sub-Advisory Agreement”) with respect to
each Fund. Pursuant to that Sub-Advisory Agreement, the adviser will pay the sub-adviser an annual minimum fee of $40,000
(waived for the first six months) and:
|
(i) |
04% for
Fund assets up to $250 million; |
|
(ii) |
03% for
Fund assets between $250 and $500 million;
and |
|
(iii) |
02% for
Fund assets above $500 million |
A
discussion regarding the basis for the Board of Trustees’ approval of the
Sub-Advisory Agreement with respect to each will be available in the Funds’ Form
N-CSR for the period ending November 30, 2026.
Neither
this Prospectus nor the Statement of Additional Information is intended to give
rise to any contract rights or other rights in any shareholder, other than any
rights conferred explicitly by federal or state securities laws that have not
been waived. The Funds enter into contractual arrangements with various parties,
including, among others, the adviser, who provide services to the Funds.
Shareowners are not parties to, or intended to be third party beneficiaries of,
those contractual arrangements. Where shareowners are not third party
beneficiaries of contractual arrangements, those contractual arrangements cannot
be enforced by shareowners acting on their own behalf.
Mr.
Scott Klimo CFA®,
chief investment officer at Saturna Capital Corporation, joined the firm in 2012
and has been a portfolio manager primarily responsible for the day-to-day
management of the Growth ETF since its inception.
Mr.
Monem A. Salam MBA is executive vice president, a director, and a global
portfolio manager for Saturna Capital Corporation. He joined the firm in 2003
and has been a portfolio manager of the Equity Income ETF since its inception, a
portfolio manager of the Developing World ETF since its inception, and a deputy
portfolio manager of the Growth ETF since its inception.
Mr.
Bryce R. Fegley MS, CFA®,
CIPM®, is
a senior investment analyst and portfolio manager for Saturna Capital
Corporation. He joined the firm in 2001 and has been a deputy portfolio manager
for the Equity Income ETF since its inception.
Mr.
Levi Stewart Zurbrugg MBA, CFA®,
CPA®, is
a senior investment analyst and portfolio manager for Saturna Capital
Corporation. He joined the firm in 2019 and has been a deputy portfolio manager
of the Equity Income ETF and the Developing World ETF since the Funds’
inception.
Mr.
Jason S. Mitchell MBA, a senior investment analyst of Saturna Capital
Corporation, joined the firm in 2025 and has been deputy portfolio manager of
the Growth ETF since its inception. Prior to joining Saturna Capital
Corporation, Mr. Mitchell served as a portfolio manager/analyst at Cercano Asset
Management from 2022-2024 and served as Director and Senior Analyst at Bank of
America Securities Japan from 2018-2021.
Mr.
Austin Wen, CFA® and Ms. Devin Ryder CFA®, both senior portfolio managers of the
sub-adviser, have sub-advised each Fund since its inception. Mr. Wen has over a
decade of investment experience, specializing in portfolio management and
trading of equity, derivative, and commodities-based portfolios, as well as risk
monitoring and investment analysis. Ms. Ryder has over five years of
industry experience.
See
the Statement of Additional Information for a discussion of their compensation,
other accounts managed, and ownership of Amana ETFs and other funds they
manage.
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
serves as the transfer agent and custodian to the Funds. The transfer agent and custodian
maintains in separate accounts cash, securities and other assets of the Funds,
keeps all necessary accounts and records, and provides other
services.
Paralel Distributors LLC
(“Distributor”) serves as the Fund’s distributor. Shares in less than Creation Units
are not distributed by the Distributor, and the Distributor does not maintain a
secondary market in the shares of the Fund.
BUYING AND SELLING FUND
SHARES
Shares
of the Funds may be purchased or redeemed directly from a Fund only in Creation
Units or multiples thereof. Only a broker-dealer (an “Authorized Participant” or
“AP”) that enters into an Authorized Participant Agreement with the Funds’
Distributor may engage in creation and redemption transactions directly with the
Funds. Purchases and redemptions directly with the Funds must follow the Funds’
procedures, and are subject to transaction fees, which are described in the SAI.
Orders for such transactions may be rejected or delayed if they are not
submitted in good order and subject to the other conditions set forth in this
Prospectus and the SAI. Please see the SAI for more information about purchases
and redemptions of Creation Units.
Once
purchased (i.e., created) by an AP, Fund
shares are listed on the Exchange and trade in the secondary market. When you
buy or sell a Fund’s shares in the secondary market, you will pay or receive the
market price. The price at which you buy or sell shares (i.e., the market price) may be more or less
than the NAV of the shares. Unless imposed by your broker, there is no minimum
dollar amount you must invest in a Fund and no minimum number of shares you must
buy. Shares can be bought and sold throughout the trading day like other
publicly traded securities. Most investors will buy and sell shares through a
broker and, thus, will incur customary brokerage commissions and charges when
buying or selling shares. Except when
aggregated in Creation Units, shares are not redeemable by the
Funds.
The
secondary markets are closed on weekends and also are generally closed on the
following holidays: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’
Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day (observed), Juneteenth National Independence Day,
Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.
When
the Exchange is open, shares will be listed and traded on the Exchange under the
following symbols:
|
Fund |
Ticker
Symbol |
|
Amana Equity Income
ETF |
AMEI |
|
Amana Growth
ETF |
AMGR |
|
Amana Developing World
ETF |
AMEM |
| |
|
For more information on how to
buy and sell shares of the Funds, please contact your broker or dealer, or call
(800) 728-8762 or visit www.Amanafunds.com.
The
net asset value per share of each Fund is the total value of Fund assets
attributable to shares of the Fund minus the liabilities attributable to the
Fund, divided by the total number of shares outstanding for the Fund. Because
the value of a Fund’s portfolio securities changes every business day, its net
asset value usually changes as well.
Each
Fund computes its daily net asset value using market prices as of the close of
trading on the New York Stock Exchange (generally 4 p.m. Eastern time). Fund net
asset value is not determined on the days when New York Stock Exchange trading
is closed (typically weekends and US national holidays). Securities traded on a
national securities exchange and over-the-counter securities are valued at the
last reported sale price on the valuation day. Securities for which there are no
sales are valued at the latest bid price. Occasionally there may be days without
a readily available market price for a security. When this occurs, a fair value
for such security is determined in good faith under the direction of the Board
of Trustees. The Board of Trustees has designated the adviser (Saturna Capital
Corporation) as each Fund’s valuation designee to perform fair value functions
in accordance with valuation policies and procedures adopted by the adviser,
subject to the Board of Trustees’ oversight. Using fair value to price a
security may result in a value different from the security’s most recent closing
price and from the prices used by other funds to calculate their share
prices.
Foreign
markets may close before the time as of which the share price is computed.
Because of this, events occurring after the close of a foreign market and before
the share price computation may have a material effect on foreign security
prices. Foreign securities may trade on weekends or other days when the Funds do
not price their shares. As a result, the value of these securities may change on
days when Fund shares cannot be purchased or redeemed.
The
Equity Income ETF may invest up to 20% of its total assets in its Subsidiary for
the purpose of investing its cash positions. The Subsidiary offers to redeem all
or a portion of its shares every Business Day. The value of the Subsidiary’s
shares will fluctuate with the value of its portfolio investments. The
Subsidiary uses the same pricing and valuation methodologies described above to
price its shares.
Additional
information about portfolio security valuation, including foreign securities, is
contained in the Fund’s Statement of Additional Information (SAI).
PREMIUM/DISCOUNT INFORMATION
Information showing the number of
days the market price of a Fund’s shares was greater than the Fund’s NAV per
share (i.e., at a premium) and the number of
days it was less than the Fund’s NAV per share (i.e., at a discount) for various time
periods will be available by visiting the Funds’ website at https://www.saturna.com/products/etf-performance. The premium and discount information contained on the
website will represent past performance and cannot be used to predict future
results.
FUND WEBSITE AND
DISCLOSURE OF PORTFOLIO HOLDINGS
The Funds maintain a website at
https://www.saturna.com/products/etf-performance. Among other things, this website includes this
Prospectus and the SAI, and will include the Fund’s annual and semi-annual
reports (when available), certain market price information about shares, daily
NAV and a historical comparison of the shares’ market prices to
NAV.
In addition,
each day the Funds are open for business, each Fund’s full portfolio holdings as
of the close of the previous day are disseminated through the website. A
description of the Funds’ policies and procedures with respect to the disclosure
of the Funds’ portfolio holdings is available in the Funds’ Statement of
Additional Information (SAI).
ACTIVE INVESTORS AND MARKET
TIMING
The Trust’s
Board of Trustees has determined not to adopt policies and procedures designed
to prevent or monitor for frequent purchases and redemptions of the Funds’
shares because each Fund sells and redeems its shares at NAV only in Creation
Units pursuant to the terms of an Authorized Participant Agreement between the
Authorized Participant (“AP”) and the Distributor, and such direct trading
between a Fund and APs is critical to ensuring that the Fund’s shares trade at
or close to NAV. Further, the vast majority of trading in Fund shares occurs on
the secondary market, which does not involve the Funds directly and therefore
does not cause the Funds to experience many of the harmful effects of market
timing, such as dilution and disruption of portfolio management. In addition,
each Fund imposes a transaction fee on Creation Unit transactions, which is
designed to offset transfer and other transaction costs incurred by the Fund in
connection with the issuance and redemption of Creation Units and may employ
fair valuation pricing to minimize potential dilution from market timing. The
Funds reserve the right to reject any purchase order at any time and reserves
the right to impose restrictions on disruptive, excessive, or short-term
trading.
INVESTMENTS BY
REGISTERED INVESTMENT COMPANIES
Section
12(d)(1) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (“1940 Act”) restricts
investments by investment companies in the securities of other investment
companies, including shares of the Funds. Registered investment companies are
permitted to invest in the Funds beyond the limits set forth in Section 12(d)(1)
in reliance on rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission,
particularly Rule 12d1-4 under the 1940 Act, or any other applicable exemptive
relief.
The method
by which Creation Units of Fund shares are created and traded may raise certain
issues under applicable securities laws. Because new Creation Units of shares
are issued and sold by the Funds on an ongoing basis, a “distribution,” as such
term is used in the Securities Act, may occur at any point. Broker-dealers and
other persons are cautioned that some activities on their part may, depending on
the circumstances, result in their being deemed participants in a distribution
in a manner which could render them statutory underwriters and subject them to
the prospectus delivery requirement and liability provisions of the Securities
Act.
For
example, a broker-dealer firm or its client may be deemed a statutory
underwriter if it takes Creation Units after placing an order with the
Distributor, breaks them down into constituent shares and sells the shares
directly to customers or if it chooses to couple the creation of a supply of new
shares with an active selling effort involving solicitation of secondary market
demand for shares. A determination of whether one is an underwriter for purposes
of the Securities Act must take into account all the facts and circumstances
pertaining to the activities of the broker-dealer or its client in the
particular case, and the examples mentioned above should not be considered a
complete description of all the activities that could lead to a characterization
as an underwriter.
Broker-dealer
firms should also note that dealers who are not “underwriters” but are effecting
transactions in shares, whether or not participating in the distribution of
shares, are generally required to deliver a Prospectus. This is in addition to
any obligation of dealers to deliver a Prospectus when acting as underwriters.
This is because the prospectus delivery exemption in Section 4(3) of the
Securities Act is not available in respect of such transactions as a result of
Section 24(d) of the 1940 Act. As a result, broker-dealer firms should note that
dealers who are not “underwriters” but are participating in a distribution (as
contrasted with engaging in ordinary secondary market transactions) and thus
dealing with the shares that are part of an overallotment within the meaning of
Section 4(3)(C) of the Securities Act, will be unable to take advantage of the
prospectus delivery exemption provided by Section 4(3) of the Securities Act.
For delivery of prospectuses to exchange members, the prospectus delivery
mechanism of Rule 153 under the Securities Act is only available with respect to
transactions on a national exchange.
PAYMENTS
TO BROKER-DEALERS AND OTHER FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES
If you
purchase shares of a Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial
intermediary (such as a bank), the adviser or an affiliate may pay the
intermediary for marketing activities or other services related to the sale or
promotion of the Fund. These payments may create a conflict of interest by
influencing the broker-dealer or other financial intermediary and your
salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson
or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
DISTRIBUTION AND SERVICE PLAN
Each Fund
has adopted a distribution and service plan (“Plan”) pursuant to Rule 12b-1
under the 1940 Act. Under the Plan, each Fund is authorized to pay distribution
fees to the Distributor and other firms that provide distribution and shareowner
services (“Service Providers”). If a Service Provider provides such services,
the Fund may pay fees at an annual rate not to exceed 0.25% of average daily net
assets, pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the 1940 Act.
No
distribution or service fees are currently paid by the Funds, however, and there
are no current plans to impose these fees. In the event Rule 12b-1 fees are
charged, over time they would increase the cost of an investment in the Fund
because they would be paid on an ongoing basis.
DIVIDENDS, OTHER
DISTRIBUTIONS AND TAXES
Fund
Distributions
Each
Fund generally pays out dividends from its net investment income, if any, and
distributes its net capital gains, if any, to shareowners at least annually. A
Fund typically earns dividends from stocks in which it invests and may generate
net gains from certain foreign currency transactions. These amounts, net of
expenses, are distributed to Fund shareowners as “income dividends.” A Fund
realizes capital gains or losses whenever it sells securities. Net long-term
capital gains are distributed to shareowners as “capital gain dividends.”
Brokers
may make available to their customers who own shares the DTC book-entry dividend
reinvestment service. To determine whether this service is available and whether
there is a commission or other charge for using this service, consult your
broker. Brokers may require a Fund’s shareowners to adhere to specific
procedures and timetables. If this service is available and used, dividend
distributions of both net income and net realized gains will be automatically
reinvested in additional whole shares purchased in the secondary market. Without
this service, investors would receive all their distributions in cash.
Taxes
The
following is a summary of the material federal income tax considerations
applicable to an investment in shares. This summary is based on the Code and the
regulations thereunder as in effect on the date of this Prospectus and judicial
and administrative interpretations thereof publicly available at that date, all
of which are subject to change, possibly with retroactive effect. In addition,
this summary assumes that a shareowner holds shares as “capital assets” (within
the meaning of the Code) and does not hold shares in connection with a trade or
business. This summary does not address all potential federal income tax
considerations possibly applicable to shareowners who hold shares through a
partnership (or other pass-through entity) or to shareowners subject to special
tax rules. Prospective shareowners are urged to consult their own tax advisors
with respect to the specific federal, state, local, and foreign tax consequences
of investing in shares based on their particular circumstances.
As
with any investment, you should consider how your investment in shares will be
taxed. Unless your investment in shares is made through a tax-exempt entity or
tax-deferred arrangement, such as an IRA or 401(k) plan, you need to be aware of
the possible tax consequences when the Fund makes distributions and when you
sell your shares.
Federal Income
Tax Status of the Funds
Each
Fund intends to qualify for its first and each subsequent taxable year, to be
treated as a “regulated investment company” under Subchapter M of Chapter 1 of
Subtitle A of the Code. As such, a Fund (but not its shareowners) generally pays
no federal income tax on the net income and net realized gains it distributes to
its shareowners.
Taxes on
Distributions
Distributions
from a Fund’s net investment income (other than “qualified dividend income”
(“QDI”)), including distributions of the Fund’s net realized short-term capital
gains and certain foreign currency gains, if any, are taxable to you as ordinary
income. Distributions by a Fund of net long-term capital gains in excess of net
short-term capital loss (“net capital gain”) are taxable to you as long-term
capital gains, regardless of how long you have held the Fund’s shares.
Distributions by a Fund that qualify as QDI are taxable to you at long-term
capital gain rates (which are lower than the rates for ordinary income). In
order for a distribution to you by a Fund to be treated as QDI, (1) the Fund
itself must receive QDI from domestic corporations and certain qualified foreign
corporations, (2) the Fund must meet holding period and other requirements with
respect to the stocks on which the QDI was paid, and (3) you must meet similar
requirements with respect to the Fund’s shares. In general, your distributions
are subject to federal income tax for the calendar year when they are paid;
certain distributions paid in January, however, may be treated as paid on
December 31 of the prior year. Income dividends and capital gain distributions
paid to an individual, estate, or trust from the Fund will be subject to a 3.8%
tax on the lesser of the shareowner’s (a) “net investment income” or (b)
“modified adjusted gross income” exceeding $200,000 (or $250,000 if married and
filing jointly) (“Investment Income Tax”).
If
you buy shares of a Fund just before a distribution, you will be subject to tax
on the entire amount of the taxable distribution you receive. Distributions are
taxable to you even if they are paid from income or gain earned by the Fund
before your investment (and thus were included in the price you paid for your
shares). Any gain resulting from the sale or exchange of shares generally will
be taxable as long-term or short-term gain, depending upon how long you have
held the shares.
A
Fund may be subject to foreign withholding or other foreign taxes, which in some
cases can be significant, on any income or gain from investments in foreign
stocks or securities. In that case, the Fund’s total return on those securities
would be decreased. The Fund may generally deduct these taxes in computing its
taxable income. Rather than deducting these foreign taxes, if a Fund invests
more than 50% of its assets in the stock or securities of foreign corporations
at the end of its taxable year it may make an election to treat a proportionate
amount of eligible foreign taxes as constituting a taxable distribution to each
shareowner, which would, subject to certain limitations, generally allow the
shareowners to either (i) credit that proportionate amount of taxes against U.S.
federal income tax liability as a foreign tax credit or (ii) take that amount as
an itemized deduction.
Although
in some cases a Fund may be able to apply for a refund of a portion of such
taxes, the ability to successfully obtain such a refund may be uncertain.
If
you are a resident or a citizen of the United States, back-up withholding will
apply to your distributions and proceeds of sales of shares if you have not
provided a correct social security or other taxpayer identification number and
made other required certifications or if otherwise required by the Internal
Revenue Service (“IRS”).
Taxes on
Exchange-Listed Shares Sales
Any
capital gain or loss realized upon a sale of shares is generally treated as
long-term capital gain or loss if the shares have been held for more than one
year and as short-term capital gain or loss if the shares have been held for one
year or less. Gains recognized from the sale or exchange of shares will be
subject to the Investment Income Tax. Capital loss realized on the sale or
exchange of shares held for six months or less will be treated as long-term
capital loss to the extent of any capital gain dividends received by the
shareowner. The ability to deduct capital losses may be limited.
Taxes on
Purchase and Redemption of Creation Units
An
Authorized Participant who exchanges equity securities for one or more Creation
Unit(s) generally will recognize a gain or a loss. The gain or loss will be
equal to the difference between the market value of the Creation Unit(s) at the
time and the exchanger’s aggregate basis in the securities surrendered and any
cash paid. An Authorized Participant who exchanges one or more Creation Unit(s)
for equity securities will generally recognize a gain or loss equal to the
difference between the exchanger’s basis in the Creation Unit(s) and the
aggregate market value of the securities received and any cash received on the
redemption. The IRS, however, may assert that a loss realized upon an exchange
of securities for Creation Units cannot be deducted, on the grounds that under
such a transaction there has been no significant change in economic position.
Persons exchanging securities should consult their own tax advisors with respect
to whether and when such a loss might be deductible.
Any
capital gain or loss realized upon redemption of a Creation Unit is generally
treated as long-term capital gain or loss if the shares in the Creation Unit
have been held for more than one year and as a short-term capital gain or loss
if those shares have been held for one year or less.
If
you purchase or redeem Creation Units, you will be sent a confirmation statement
showing the number of shares and at what price you purchased or redeemed
them.
Additional
Information
Shareowners
that are non-resident aliens or foreign entities will generally be subject to
withholding of U.S. federal income tax at the rate of 30% of all ordinary
dividends if there is no applicable tax treaty or if they are claiming reduced
withholding under a tax treaty and have not properly completed and signed the
appropriate IRS Form W-8. Provided that the appropriate IRS Form W-8 is properly
completed and provided to the applicable withholding agent, long-term capital
gains distributions and proceeds of sales are not subject to withholding for
foreign shareowners. An exception from withholding also applies to properly
reported “interest-related dividends” and “short-term capital gain
dividends.”
Withholding
of U.S. tax (at a 30% rate) is required on payments of taxable dividends made to
certain non-U.S. entities that fail to comply (or be deemed compliant) with
extensive reporting and withholding requirements designed to inform the U.S.
Department of the Treasury of U.S.-owned foreign investment accounts.
Shareowners may be requested to provide additional information to enable the
applicable withholding agent to determine whether withholding is required.
Distributions
from a Fund may also be subject to state, local, and foreign taxes. You should
consult your own tax advisor regarding the particular tax consequences of an
investment in a Fund.
This
section summarizes some of the consequences under current federal tax law of an
investment in the Fund. It is not a substitute for personal tax advice. Consult
your personal tax advisor about the potential tax consequences of an investment
in the Fund under all applicable tax laws.
It
is the policy of the Funds to mail only one copy of the prospectus, annual
report, semi-annual report and proxy statements to all shareowners who share the
same mailing address and share the same last name. You are deemed to consent to
this policy unless you specifically revoke this policy and request that separate
copies of such documents be mailed to you. In such case, you will begin to
receive your own copies within 30 days after our receipt of the revocation. You
may request that separate copies of these disclosure documents be mailed to you
by writing to us at: Saturna Capital Corporation, 1300 N. State Street,
Bellingham, Washington 98225 or calling us at: (800) 728-8762.
Investors
who hold their shares through an intermediary are subject to the intermediary’s
policies. Contact your financial intermediary for any questions you may
have.
Neither
this Prospectus nor the Statement of Additional Information is intended to give
rise to any contract rights or other rights in any shareowner, other than any
rights conferred explicitly by federal or state securities laws that have not
been waived. The Funds enter into contractual arrangements with various parties,
including, among others, the adviser, who provide services to the Funds.
Shareowners are not parties to, or intended to be third party beneficiaries of,
those contractual arrangements. Where shareowners are not third party
beneficiaries of contractual arrangements, those contractual arrangements cannot
be enforced by shareowners acting on their own behalf.
The
financial highlights tables, when available, are intended to help you understand
the Fund’s financial performance for the period of the Fund’s operation. The
Fund is newly organized and therefore had not yet had any operations as of the
date of this Prospectus and does not have financial highlights to present at
this time.
Appendix – Related Performance Information of
Similar Accounts
The Amana Equity Income ETF
(the “Fund”) has recently commenced operations and has no performance history.
Saturna Capital Corporation (“Saturna Capital”) manages other advisory accounts
that have substantially similar investment objectives, policies and investment
strategies as the Fund, and the table below provides supplemental performance
information for the Halal Equity Income Composite which is a composite of all
such accounts (the “Composite”). The Composite performance information does not
represent the performance of the Fund. It is provided to illustrate the past
performance of Saturna Capital in managing the Composite. In addition, the
performance is shown against the Bloomberg 500 Total Return Index (the “Index”).
The Fund’s portfolio management team is the same team that is responsible for
managing the account that constitutes the Composite.
The historical performance
data for the Composite should not be considered a substitute for the Fund’s
performance, and should not be considered an indication of the Fund’s future
performance. The Composite started in 2006 and at all times has been comprised
of one account. The market value of the single account which comprises the
Composite has ranged from $53,000,000 as of December 31, 2005 to $2,127,000,000
as of December 31, 2025. Since fees, commissions, and taxes may differ for the
Composite and the Fund, performance data for identical periods may differ. The
Composite has been constructed in compliance with the Global Investment
Performance Standards (GIPS®)
standards. You should not assume that the Fund
will have the same performance as the Composite. An investment in the Fund can
lose value.
Although the Fund and the
Composite have substantially similar investment objectives, policies and
investment strategies, differences in asset size and cash flows may result in
differences in security selection, relative weightings or differences in the
price paid for certain securities. As such, the investments held by the Fund may
not be identical to the investments held by the Composite and the future
performance of the Fund will differ from the performance of the Composite.
The Composite’s net
performance information is calculated in accordance with GIPS®,
created and administered by the CFA Institute. This method of calculating
performance differs from the SEC’s standardized methodology that will be used to
calculate the Fund’s performance and may result in an average annual total
return that may be higher than that derived from the SEC’s standardized
methodology.
AVERAGE
ANNUAL TOTAL % RETURNS AS OF 12/31/2025
| |
Inception Date
of Composite |
Year to Date 12/31/2025 |
1 Year |
3 Years |
5 Years |
10 Years |
| Composite
(net of account fees)1 |
1/1/2006 |
16.65 |
16.65 |
14.54 |
11.05 |
11.94 |
|
Bloomberg 500 Total Return Index |
|
15.40 |
15.40 |
23.83 |
14.17 |
15.02 |
1 Net
of fee numbers are presented net of an annual model fee of 0.75%.
Composite returns are
presented in U.S. dollars and include the reinvestment of dividends and
interest. The Fund’s return will be reduced by the estimated total expenses of
the Fund for its initial fiscal period as presented in the fee table included in
this Prospectus, including management fees. The total annual fund operating
expenses for the Fund in the fee table are higher than the annual model fee of
the Composite, and therefore the Fund’s return would have been lower. Composite
(net of account fees) returns are calculated using an annual model fee of 0.75%,
which is equal to the actual fee, excluding custody fees, incurred by an account
in the Halal Equity Income Composite or the highest tier of a fee schedule for
an account in the Halal Equity Income Composite, whichever is higher. Periods
greater than one year are annualized. Actual expenses may vary among clients
with the same investment strategy.
The Index is a float
market-cap weighted benchmark of the 500 most highly capitalized US
companies.
It is not possible to invest directly in the Index.
Unlike the accounts in the Composite (and the Fund), the Index does not incur
fees or expenses.
Amana Growth
ETF
The Amana Growth ETF (the
“Fund”) has recently commenced operations and has no performance history.
Saturna Capital Corporation (“Saturna Capital”) manages other advisory accounts
that have substantially similar investment objectives, policies and investment
strategies as the Fund, and the table below provides supplemental performance
information for the Halal Growth Equity Composite which is a composite of all
such accounts (the “Composite”). The Composite performance information does not
represent the performance of the Fund. It is provided to illustrate the past
performance of Saturna Capital in managing the Composite. In addition, the
performance is shown against the Bloomberg 500 Total Return Index (the “Index”).
The Fund’s portfolio management team is the same team that is responsible for
managing the accounts that constitute the Composite.
The historical performance
data for the Composite should not be considered a substitute for the Fund’s
performance, and should not be considered an indication of the Fund’s future
performance. The Composite started in 2006 and was comprised of one account with
$137,000,000 in market value as of December 31, 2005. Since that time, the
number of accounts in the Composite has ranged from one to three accounts and
the market value of the Composite has ranged from $137,000,000 to, as of
December 31, 2025, $5,955,000,000. Since fees, commissions, and taxes may differ
for the Composite and the Fund, performance data for identical periods may
differ. The Composite has been constructed in compliance with the Global
Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®)
standards. You should not assume that the Fund
will have the same performance as the Composite. An investment in the Fund can
lose value.
The Composite includes
accounts that are not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the
“1940 Act”), and therefore are not subject to certain investment restrictions,
diversification requirements, and other regulatory requirements imposed by the
1940 Act or by the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. If those accounts had been
registered under the 1940 Act, the performance results might have been lower.
Although the Fund and the Composite have substantially similar investment
objectives, policies and investment strategies, differences in asset size and
cash flows may result in differences in security selection, relative weightings
or differences in the price paid for certain securities. As such, the
investments held by the Fund may not be identical to the investments held by the
Composite and the future performance of the Fund will differ from the
performance of the Composite.
The Composite’s net
performance information is calculated in accordance with GIPS®,
created and administered by the CFA Institute. This method of calculating
performance differs from the SEC’s standardized methodology that will be used to
calculate the Fund’s performance and may result in an average annual total
return that may be higher than that derived from the SEC’s standardized
methodology.
AVERAGE
ANNUAL TOTAL % RETURNS AS OF 12/31/2025
| |
Inception Date
of
Composite |
Year
to Date 12/31/2025 |
1 Year |
3 Years |
5 Years |
10 Years |
|
Composite (net of account
fees)
1 |
1/1/2006 |
17.74 |
17.74 |
19.74 |
12.79 |
16.62 |
|
Bloomberg 500 Total Return Index |
|
15.40 |
15.40 |
23.83 |
14.17 |
15.02 |
1 Net
of fee numbers are presented net of an annual model fee of 0.75%.
Composite returns are
presented in U.S. dollars and include the reinvestment of dividends and
interest. The Fund’s return will be reduced by the estimated total expenses of
the Fund for its initial fiscal period as presented in the fee table included in
this Prospectus, including management fees. Composite (net of account fees)
returns are calculated using an annual model fee of 0.75%, which is equal to the
actual fee, excluding custody fees, incurred by an account in the Halal Growth
Equity Composite or the highest tier of a fee schedule for an account in the
Halal Growth Equity Composite, whichever is higher. Periods greater than one
year are annualized. Actual expenses may vary among clients with the same
investment strategy.
The Index is a float
market-cap weighted benchmark of the 500 most highly capitalized US
companies.
It is not possible to invest directly in the Index.
Unlike the accounts in the Composite (and the Fund), the Index does not incur
fees or expenses.
Amana
Developing World ETF
The Amana Developing World ETF
(the “Fund”) has recently commenced operations and has no performance history.
Saturna Capital Corporation (“Saturna Capital”) manages other advisory accounts
that have substantially similar investment objectives, policies and investment
strategies as the Fund and the table below provides supplemental performance
information for the Halal Emerging Market Equity Composite which is a composite
of all such accounts (the “Composite”). The Composite performance information
does not represent the performance of the Fund. It is provided to illustrate the
past performance of Saturna Capital in managing the Composite. In addition, the
performance is shown against the Bloomberg Emerging Markets Large, Mid &
Small Cap Total Return Index (the “Index”). The Fund’s portfolio management team
is the same team that is responsible for managing the account that constitutes
the Composite.
The historical performance
data for the Composite should not be considered a substitute for the Fund’s
performance, and should not be considered an indication of the Fund’s future
performance. The Composite started in 2009 and at all times has been comprised
of one account. The market value of the single account which comprises the
Composite has ranged from $1,400,000, as of December 31, 2009, to $158,000,000,
as of December 31, 2025. Since fees, commissions, and taxes may differ for the
Composite and the Fund, performance data for identical periods may differ. The
Composite has been constructed in compliance with the Global Investment
Performance Standards (GIPS®)
standards. You should not assume that the Fund
will have the same performance as the Composite. An investment in the Fund can
lose value.
Although the Fund and the
Composite have substantially similar investment objectives, policies and
investment strategies, differences in asset size and cash flows may result in
differences in security selection, relative weightings or differences in the
price paid for certain securities. As such, the investments held by the Fund may
not be identical to the investments held by the Composite and the future
performance of the Fund will differ from the performance of the Composite.
The Composite’s net
performance information is calculated in accordance with GIPS®,
created and administered by the CFA Institute. This method of calculating
performance differs from the SEC’s standardized methodology that will be used to
calculate the Fund’s performance and may result in an average annual total
return that may be higher than that derived from the SEC’s standardized
methodology.
AVERAGE
ANNUAL TOTAL % RETURNS AS OF 12/31/2025
| |
Inception Date
of
Composite |
Year to Date 12/31/2025 |
1 Year |
3 Years |
5 Years |
10 Years |
| Composite
(net of account fees)1 |
10/1/2009 |
20.25 |
20.25 |
13.54 |
9.13 |
7.11 |
|
Bloomberg Emerging Markets Large, Mid & Small Cap Total Return
Index |
|
28.39 |
28.39 |
15.10 |
4.51 |
8.92 |
1 Net
of fee numbers are presented net of an annual model fee of 0.75%.
Composite returns are
presented in U.S. dollars and include the reinvestment of dividends and
interest. The Fund’s return will be reduced by the estimated total expenses of
the Fund for its initial fiscal period as presented in the fee table included in
this Prospectus, including management fees. The total annual fund operating
expenses for the Fund in the fee table are higher than the annual model fee of
the Composite, and therefore the Fund’s return would have been lower. Composite
(net of account fees) returns are calculated using an annual model fee of
0.75%, which is equal to the actual fee, excluding custody fees,
incurred by an account in the Halal Emerging Market Equity Composite or the
highest tier of a fee schedule for an account in the Halal Emerging Market
Equity Composite, whichever is higher. Periods greater than one year are
annualized. Actual expenses may vary among clients with the same investment
strategy.
The Index is a float
market-cap-weighted equity benchmark that covers the top 99% of market cap of
the measured market. It is not possible
to invest directly in the Index. Unlike the accounts in the Composite (and the
Fund), the Index does not incur fees or expenses.
Additional
information about each Fund’s investments and operations is available in the
Funds’ annual and semi-annual shareowner reports and in Form N-CSR. Each Fund’s
annual report includes a discussion of the market conditions and investment
strategies that significantly affected the Fund’s performance during its last
fiscal year. In Form N-CSR, you will find each Fund’s annual and semi-annual
financial statements. The Statement of Additional Information (SAI) contains
more details, and is incorporated in this Prospectus by reference.
To obtain
free copies of these documents and other information, such as the Funds’
financial statements, and to make shareowner inquiries, please contact us
at:
Saturna
Capital Corporation
1300 N. State St., Bellingham, WA
98225
1-800-728-8762 1-800-SATURNA
Amana Mutual
Funds Trust
1-888-732-6262
www.amanafunds.com
Copies of the Statement of
Additional Information and the annual and semi-annual reports, and other
information such as the Funds’ financial statements, are also available on our
website, www.amanafunds.com.
Information about each Fund’s
NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads are available on
the Funds’ website, https://www.saturna.com/products/etf-performance.
Reports and other information
about the Trust are also available on the SEC’s EDGAR database (
www.sec.gov) and copies may be
obtained, upon payment of a duplicating fee, by e-mail request to
[email protected].
Investment
Company Act File # 811-04276.