d1062176_defa-14a.htm
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Shareholder
Contact:
1-800-221-5672
THE SPAIN
FUND ANNOUNCES INTENTIONS CONCERNING PROPOSED
AMENDMENT OR ELIMINATION OF
CERTAIN FUNDAMENTAL INVESTMENT POLICIES
New York,
NY, January 11, 2010—The Spain Fund, Inc. (the "Fund"—NYSE: SNF) today announced
that its Board of Directors has determined that if stockholders approve the
proposal to amend or eliminate certain fundamental investment policies of the
Fund ("Proposal 3") at the Fund's adjourned Annual Meeting of Stockholders on
January 19, 2010, the Fund will continue to comply with certain of such
investment policies unless stockholders approve their amendment or elimination
at a future meeting of stockholders.
Specifically,
if Proposal 3 is approved by stockholders the Fund will not rely on the
elimination of the following fundamental policies, each of which is included in
Proposal 3.F: (i) prohibition on investing more than 25% of total
assets in unlisted and non-readily marketable Spanish securities, (ii)
prohibition on short sales or maintaining short positions, (iii) prohibition on
investments for the purposes of exercising control, and (iv) prohibition on
investments in oil, gas, mineral leases, etc. The Fund would continue
to comply with the prohibitions in (i)–(iv) above notwithstanding stockholder
approval of Proposal 3, unless and until stockholders approve the amendment or
elimination thereof at a future meeting of stockholders. The Fund
announced that the Board made its determination after considering concerns
raised by a major stockholder.
As
previously announced, two of the three Proposals submitted to stockholders at
the initial session of the Annual Meeting held on November 9, 2009 were approved
by stockholders. These Proposals were for the election of Directors
("Proposal 1") and the modification of the Fund's investment objective and
reclassification of the objective as non-fundamental ("Proposal
2"). Proposal 3 was submitted at the November 9, 2009 session and at
a session on December 8, 2009 and has not yet been approved. The
adjourned Annual Meeting held on December 8, 2009 was adjourned until January
19, 2010 to allow additional time for the solicitation of proxies in respect of
Proposal 3.
As
previously announced, the reconvened Annual Meeting will be held at 1345 Avenue
of the Americas, 41st Floor, New York, New York, at 3:30 P.M., Eastern
Time. Only stockholders of record on September 21, 2009 will be
entitled to vote at the reconvened Annual Meeting. The change to the
Fund's investment objective and a related change in its name to "The
Ibero-America Fund, Inc.", which was approved by the Fund's Board of Directors,
will not become effective unless the stockholders of the Fund approve changes to
the fundamental policies of the Fund submitted to stockholders in Proposal 3 at
the upcoming reconvened Annual Meeting.
The Fund
is a closed-end U.S.-registered management investment company advised by
AllianceBernstein L.P. with assets of approximately $73.6 million.