DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Janus Capital Group, Inc. (Janus) today announced the 40^th anniversary of its flagship Janus Fund (JANSX). The fund has more than doubled the return of the S&P 500 index since its inception. Ten thousand dollars invested in Janus Fund at its February 5, 1970 inception would be worth more than $1 million dollars today.

Janus Fund opened with $500,000 in assets and 30 shareholders. Forty years later the Fund has $8.6 billion in assets with more than 700,000 shareholders, and of the 890 large cap growth funds currently ranked by Lipper, Janus Fund is one of only 19 in existence with a track record of forty years.

At a time when most asset managers were located in New York and Boston, Thomas Bailey established Janus in Denver believing that doing independent, fundamental, in-depth research would provide a different perspective from the research work being done by Wall Street. In the decades following, Janus was one of the first asset managers to take this distinct research-driven, bottom-up approach to investing and leverage it across other asset classes, including global, international and fixed income strategies.

"Our mission was pretty simple: we wanted to find the most promising opportunities for our investors, and we wanted to do so in a way that added value above and beyond the confines of Wall Street," said Bailey. "To do that, you had to put your feet on the street and do your own first-hand research. Not only did you have to talk to management, you had to dig into what they were saying by talking to suppliers, vendors, customers and competitors. Janus was unique in doing this research forty years ago, and it is still at the core of the firm's success today."

Co-chief investment officer Jonathan Coleman, who co-manages Janus Fund with Daniel Riff, believes the firm's, and in particular the Janus Fund's, solid performance over the last forty years can be attributed to Janus' unwavering commitment to doing its own fundamental, hands-on research and the strength of the firm's investment talent over the past four decades.

"I've worked with incredibly talented investment professionals during my 16 years at Janus and the common thread that ties us together is an unrelenting passion to gain unique investment insights," said Coleman. "I believe the strong relative long-term performance across Janus-managed funds versus their peers is a true testament to our people, our research philosophy and our process. We're confident this strong foundation will help us deliver for investors for the next 40 years."

About Janus Capital Group Inc.

Janus Capital Group Inc. (JCG) is a global investment firm offering strategies from three individual investment boutiques: Janus Capital Management LLC (Janus), INTECH Investment Management LLC (INTECH) and Perkins Investment Management LLC (Perkins). Each manager employs a research-intensive approach that is distinct within its respective asset class. This multi-boutique approach enables the firm to provide style-specific expertise across an array of strategies, including growth, value and risk-managed equities, fixed income and alternatives through one common distribution platform.

At the end of December 2009, JCG managed $159.7 billion in assets for shareholders, clients and institutions around the globe. Based in Denver, JCG also has offices in London, Milan, Munich, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Melbourne.

Please consider the charges, risks, expenses and investment objectives carefully before investing. For a prospectus containing this and other information, please call Janus at 877.33JANUS (52687) or download the file from janus.com/info. Read it carefully before you invest or send money.

As of 12/31/09, Class J shares of Janus Fund had average annual total returns of 37.30%, 1.82% and -3.68% for the one-, five-, and 10-year time periods, respectively. Returns for the S&P 500 Index and the Russell 1000 Growth Index were 26.46%, 0.42%, -0.95% and 37.21%, 1.63 and -3.99% for the same periods, respectively. The Fund's annual gross and net expense ratios as of its fiscal year-end were 0.88%.

Data presented represents past performance, which is no guarantee of future results. Investment results and principal value will fluctuate so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Due to market volatility, current performance may be higher or lower than the performance shown. Call 877.33JANUS (52687) or visit or janus.com/allfunds for performance current to the most recent month end.

Janus Capital has contractually agreed to waive the Fund's total operating expenses allocated to Class J Shares (excluding any performance adjustments to management fees, administrative services fees payable pursuant to the Transfer Agency Agreement, brokerage commissions, interest, dividends, taxes, and extraordinary expenses including, but not limited to, legal claims and liabilities, litigation costs, indemnification, acquired fund fees and expenses) to certain limits until at least 11/1/10. Returns shown include fee waivers, if any, and without such waivers returns would have been lower.

Effective 2/16/10, Class J Shares will be renamed Class T Shares and will be available only through certain financial intermediary platforms. In addition, Class J Shares held directly with Janus will be moved to a newly created Class D Shares, a share class dedicated to shareholders investing directly with Janus. Class D Shares will commence operations on or about 2/16/10. The transfer agency (TA) fee structure for Class D Shares and Class T Shares will be different than that of Class J Shares. Class D Shares will pay a fixed annual TA fee rate of 0.12% of net assets. Class T Shares will pay a fixed annual TA fee rate of 0.25% of net assets. Currently, Class J Shares pay a blended annual fee rate of 0.12% of average net assets for the proportion of assets sold directly and 0.25% of average net assets sold through financial intermediaries. A Fund's total expense ratio could be impacted by the change in TA fee structure.

Returns include reinvestment of dividends and capital gains.

There is no assurance that the investment process will consistently lead to successful investing.

The hypothetical example of the $10,000 in Janus Fund on inception date does not represent the returns of any particular investment. It includes reinvestment of dividends and capital gains.

The Fund's performance may be affected by risks that include those associated with nondiversification, non-investment grade debt securities, undervalued or overlooked companies, investments in specific industries or countries and potential conflicts of interest with Janus Smart Portfolios and Janus Modular Portfolio Construction(R) Fund. Additional risks to the Fund(s) may include those associated with investing in foreign securities, emerging markets, initial public offerings, real estate investment trusts (REITs), derivatives and companies with relatively small market capitalizations. Please see a Janus prospectus for more information about risk, Fund holdings and other details.

Since inception return is not shown for the fund's primary benchmark, the Russell 1000(R) Growth Index because the index's inception date, December 31, 1998, differs significantly from the Fund's inception date.

The Russell 1000(R) Growth Index measures the performance of those Russell 1000(R) companies with higher price-to-book ratios and higher forecasted growth values. The S&P 500(R) Index is a commonly recognized, market capitalization weighted index of 500 widely held equity securities, designed to measure broad U.S. equity performance. The Fund's portfolio may differ significantly from the securities held in the indices. The indices are unmanaged and not available for direct investment; therefore its performance does not reflect the expenses associated with the active management of an actual portfolio.

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    Source: Janus Capital Group, Inc.