NOTE 2—Advisory Fees and Other Fees Paid to Affiliates
The Trust has entered into a master investment advisory agreement with the Adviser. Under the terms of the investment advisory agreement, the Fund accrues daily and pays monthly an advisory fee to the Adviser based on the annual rate of the Fund’s average daily net assets as follows:
Average Daily Net Assets | Rate* |
First $500 million | 0.400% |
Next $500 million | 0.350% |
Next $500 million | 0.300% |
Over $1.5 billion | 0.280% |
* | The advisory fee paid by the Fund shall be reduced by any amounts paid by the Fund under the administrative services agreement with the Adviser. |
For the six months ended August 31, 2024, the effective advisory fee rate incurred by the Fund was 0.39%.
Under the terms of a master sub-advisory agreement between the Adviser and each of Invesco Asset Management Deutschland GmbH, Invesco Asset Management Limited, Invesco Asset Management (Japan) Limited, Invesco Hong Kong Limited, Invesco Senior Secured Management, Inc. and Invesco Canada Ltd. and separate sub-advisory agreements with Invesco Capital Management LLC and Invesco Asset Management (India) Private Limited (collectively, the "Affiliated Sub-Advisers") the Adviser, not the Fund, will pay 40% of the fees paid to the Adviser to any such Affiliated Sub-Adviser(s) that provide(s) discretionary investment management services to the Fund based on the percentage of assets allocated to such Affiliated Sub-Adviser(s). Invesco has also entered into a sub-advisory agreement with OppenheimerFunds, Inc. to provide discretionary management services to the Fund.
Effective July 1, 2024, the Adviser has contractually agreed, through at least June 30, 2025, to waive advisory fees and/or reimburse expenses of all shares to the extent necessary to limit total annual fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement (excluding certain items discussed below) of Class A, Class C, Class Y and Class R6 shares to 0.81%, 1.56%, 0.56% and 0.56%, respectively, of the Fund’s average daily net assets (the “expense limits”). Prior to July 1, 2024, the Adviser had contractually agreed to waive advisory fees and/or reimburse expenses of all shares to the extent necessary to limit total annual fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement (excluding certain items discussed below) of Class A, Class C, Class Y and Class R6 shares to 0.70%, 1.45%, 0.45% and 0.45%, respectively, of the Fund’s average daily net assets. In determining the Adviser’s obligation to waive advisory fees and/or reimburse expenses, the following expenses are not taken into account, and could cause the total annual fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement to exceed the numbers reflected above: (1) interest, facilities and maintenance fees; (2) taxes; (3) dividend expense on short sales; (4) extraordinary or non-routine items, including litigation expenses; and (5) expenses that the Fund has incurred but did not actually pay because of an expense offset arrangement. Unless Invesco continues the fee waiver agreement, it will terminate on June 30, 2025. During its term, the fee waiver agreement cannot be terminated or amended to increase the expense limits or reduce the advisory fee waiver without approval of the Board of Trustees.
For the six months ended August 31, 2024, the Adviser waived advisory fees of $47,381 and reimbursed class level expenses of $21,249, $1,462, $9,801 and $189 of Class A, Class C, Class Y and Class R6 shares, respectively.
The Trust has entered into a master administrative services agreement with Invesco pursuant to which the Fund has agreed to pay Invesco for certain administrative costs incurred in providing accounting services to the Fund. For the six months ended August 31, 2024, expenses incurred under the agreement are shown in the Statement of Operations as Administrative services fees. Invesco has entered into a sub-administration agreement whereby State Street Bank and Trust Company (“SSB”) serves as fund accountant and provides certain administrative services to the Fund. Pursuant to a custody agreement with the Trust on behalf of the Fund, SSB also serves as the Fund’s custodian.
The Trust has entered into a transfer agency and service agreement with Invesco Investment Services, Inc. (“IIS”) pursuant to which the Fund has agreed to pay IIS a fee for providing transfer agency and shareholder services to the Fund and reimburse IIS for certain expenses incurred by IIS in the course of providing such services. IIS may make payments to intermediaries that provide omnibus account services, sub-accounting services and/or networking services. All fees payable by IIS to intermediaries that provide omnibus account services or sub-accounting services are charged back to the Fund, subject to certain limitations approved by the Trust’s Board of Trustees. For the six months ended August 31, 2024, expenses incurred under the agreement are shown in the Statement of Operations as Transfer agent fees.
The Trust has entered into master distribution agreements with Invesco Distributors, Inc. (“IDI”) to serve as the distributor for the Class A, Class C, Class Y and Class R6 shares of the Fund. The Trust has adopted plans pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the 1940 Act with respect to the Fund’s Class A and Class C shares (collectively, the “Plans”). The Fund, pursuant to the Class A Plan, reimburses IDI for its allocated share of expenses incurred for the period, up to a maximum annual rate of 0.25% of the average daily net assets of Class A shares. The Fund pursuant to the Class C Plan, pays IDI compensation at the annual rate of 1.00% of the average daily net assets of Class C shares. The fees are accrued daily and paid monthly. Of the Plans payments, up to 0.25% of the average daily net assets of each class of shares may be paid to furnish continuing personal shareholder services to customers who purchase and own shares of such classes. Any amounts not paid as a service fee under the Plans would constitute an asset-based sales charge. Rules of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) impose a cap on the total sales charges, including asset-based sales charges, that may be paid by any class of shares of the Fund. For the six months ended August 31, 2024, expenses incurred under the Plans are shown in the Statement of Operations as Distribution fees.
Front-end sales commissions and CDSC (collectively, the “sales charges”) are not recorded as expenses of the Fund. Front-end sales commissions are deducted from proceeds from the sales of Fund shares prior to investment in Class A shares of the Fund. CDSC are deducted from redemption proceeds prior to remittance to the shareholder. During the six months ended August 31, 2024, IDI advised the Fund that IDI retained $657 in front-end sales commissions from the sale of Class A shares and $0 and $200 from Class A and Class C shares, respectively, for CDSC imposed upon redemptions by shareholders.
Certain officers and trustees of the Trust are officers and directors of the Adviser, IIS and/or IDI.
NOTE 3—Additional Valuation Information
GAAP defines fair value as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date, under current market conditions. GAAP establishes a hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs to valuation methods, giving the highest priority to readily available unadjusted quoted prices in an active market for identical assets (Level 1) and the lowest priority to significant unobservable inputs (Level 3), generally when market prices are not readily available. Based on the valuation inputs, the securities or other investments are tiered into one of three levels. Changes in valuation methods may result in transfers in or out of an investment’s assigned level:
Level 1 — Prices are determined using quoted prices in an active market for identical assets.
Level 2 — Prices are determined using other significant observable inputs. Observable inputs are inputs that other market participants may use in pricing a security. These may include quoted prices for similar securities, interest rates, prepayment speeds, credit risk, yield curves, loss severities, default rates, discount rates, volatilities and others. When significant events due to market movements occur, foreign securities may be fair valued utilizing an independent pricing service.
Level 3 — Prices are determined using significant unobservable inputs. In situations where quoted prices or observable inputs are unavailable (for example, when there is little or no market activity for an investment at the end of the period), unobservable inputs may be used. Unobservable inputs reflect the Adviser’s