Today we are featuring top-performing "European" equity mutual funds, which primarily invest in equity securities of companies based in Europe.

Investors can find such funds by checking out the entire list of Zacks #1 Rank European Equity Funds.

3 Solid Samples

ING European Real Estate Fund A (IAERX) seeks to provide investors with high total return, consisting of capital appreciation and current income. It was incepted in November 2007.

The fund normally invests at least 80% of net assets in a portfolio of equity securities of real estate companies located in Europe. The fund may invest in convertible securities, initial public offering and depositary receipts.

The fund has an expense ratio of 1.75%. As of July 2009, it has a portfolio turnover of 166%.

Steven D. Burton has been lead manager of the fund since November 2007. Burton is a managing director at ING and has 24 years investment experience.

T. Rowe Price European Stock

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Dow Chemical Company (DOW) is planning to sell more non-core assets in 2010 to pay off debt from its $16.5 billion acquisition of rival Rohm and Haas in April of this year. It is planning further debt reductions of about $12 billion. Dow stated that it plans to lighten its debt load and achieve its financial targets ahead of schedule. The Rohm and Haas acquisition is proving to be positive for Dow, which is expected to consolidate higher-margin and higher-growth specialty businesses and reduce volatility in earnings and cash flow, going forward. Dow is aiming to nearly double margins and quadruple earnings per share while reducing debt in the coming years. The company has predicted earnings of $4 to $4.50 per share in 2012 (up from last year’s $1.82) to be achieved through a mix of growth synergies as well as restructuring and cost synergies. ...

Mobile TeleSystems (MBT), Eastern Europe’s largest cellular operator, announced results for third-quarter 2009 with earnings per ADS of $1.31 exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.17. Net income, however, dipped 4.1% year over year to $494.4 million on lower revenue and higher interest expenses on US dollar denominated debt.  Revenue, ARPU & Churn  Consolidated revenue declined 19.4% year over year to $2.27 billion, affected by the macroeconomic volatily across key markets and unfavorable exchange rate (rouble versus dollar) movements which hurt the company’s dollar-denominated revenues. On a geographic basis, revenue increased in Russia (7.2% year over year) and Turkmenistan (113.2%) while declining in Ukraine (1.7%), Uzbekistan (1.9%)and Armenia (3.1%).   In Russia , churn (customer switch) increased sequentially and year over year while ARPU (average revenue per user) increased from the previous quarter but declined year over year. Churn at Ukraine declined year over year while increasing ...

Diversified chemical company Dow Chemical Company (DOW) has signed an agreement to sell its non-core Powder Coatings Business to Akzo Nobel N.V. (AKZOY), a leading producer of paints and coatings, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by the second quarter of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.  Dow plans to use the proceeds from the transaction to repay debt, consistent with the company's de-leveraging plan. Dow plans to raise about $3.5 billion by divesting its non-core assets. For the Chemicals group Akzo Nobel, the deal will bring upgraded technological expertise and significant synergy potential for the Powder Coatings business, as well as enhance the company's position in the U.S.  The powder coatings activities were purchased by Dow earlier this year as part of its acquisition of Rohm & Haas. ...

Liberty Global Inc. (LBTYA) declared mixed financial results for the third quarter of 2009. Quarterly total revenue of $2.82 billion was an improvement of 7% year-over-year and also better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.75 billion. This was primarily due to the fabulous growth of Telnet and J:COM operations, which provides broadband services in Belgium and Japan respectively.  Quarterly GAAP net loss was $120.3 million or 45 cents per share compared to a net loss of $308.9 million or $1.01 in the prior-year quarter. However, third quarter net loss from continuing operation was 22 cents per share, above the Zacks Consensus estimate of a loss of 20 cents. Quarterly cost of operation was $1,059.2 million, up 5.5% year-over-year.  Selling, General and Administrative expense was $523.8 million, up 2.4% year-over-year. Third quarter operating income was $463.8 million, up 13.6% year-over-year. During the reported quarter, Liberty Global generated $691.4 ...

Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), the largest wireless carrier in the world by revenue, has announced interim results for fiscal year 2010 with adjusted net income of £4.58 billion (US$7.3 billion) increasing 15% year over year from £3.99 billion (US$6.4 billion) reported a year ago, driven by favorable exchange rate movements and reduced tax. Adjusted earnings exclude one-time items such as impairment losses. Group Revenue & EBITDA The telecom giant reported consolidated revenues of £21.8 billion (US$34.8 billion) for the period, representing a 9.3% year over year growth. Favorable exchange rate (euro-sterling) swings and net impact of merger and acquisition initiatives contributed to this growth. Excluding these impacts (organic basis), revenue declined 3% year over year. Group service revenue declined 2.6% year over year on an organic basis to £20.5 billion (US$32.7 billion), primarily due to weaker contributions from European markets as recessionary conditions curbed demand ...

One of my favorite blogs, Business Monitor International's Risk Watchdog, had a post yesterday discussing the wider historical context of the Berlin Wall's fall. The discussion of the persistence of Communism and the comparison between 1979 and 1989 I personally found to be the most thought-provoking observations but the entire posting is worth reading, accessible here.

Observation 6: Communism did not entirely die.

China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, and Laos all retain Communist leaderships, although in the former two countries the free market has largely prevailed. Many of the 'Communists' in Eastern Europe merely changed their names to 'social democrats' and returned to power, albeit in reconstructed form. Overall, the phenomenon of significant state interventionism in economies lives on long after 1989,

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This in from the Wall Street Journal on the somewhat disturbing, political dimensions of Russia's Nord Stream pipeline.  Approved just last week by Finland and Sweden after ecological concerns were overcome, the project is now ready to get off the ground, or rather under the ground.  For the pipeline will traverse the Baltic Sea floor to Germany, rather than crossing overground through former Eastern bloc countries; a divisive move, Alexandro Peterson suggests:[ . . . ] The Nord Stream project is part of an exclusionary agreement between Moscow and Berlin--nicknamed in circumvented Warsaw the "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact," after the 1939 Soviet-Nazi deal to carve up Poland. It would have been much cheaper to build an overland pipeline ...

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is apparently 'astonished' to hear that Poland's Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, asked NATO and the US to deploy troops in Europe to provide 'some strategic reassurance', on a recent visit to Washington.  Since the scrapping of the US Bush-designed missile defense scheme which would have seen troops deployed in Poland and Czech Republic, the former has apparently been feeling vulnerable . . . Kim Zigfeld points out on Pyjamas Media that Russia's recent war 'games', which simulated a full scale pipeline-sabotaging missile-battering attack of Poland, taking place in the same month that seventy years earlier Russia did actually invade, is hardly likely to reassure the Poles of the ...

Last week, Itron Inc. (ITRI) reported third-quarter earnings of 45 cents per share, below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 51 cents and 44% lower than the prior-year level. Earnings disappointment was primarily a result of uncertainty surrounding stimulus fund allocation and unfavorable foreign currency exchange rates. Quarterly revenue of $408.4 million was down 15.8% from $484.8 million in the third quarter of 2008. Itron North America revenue was 22% lower than that in the comparable quarter of 2008 due to the completion of a number of AMR contracts in 2008 and fewer electric meters shipped during the quarter as customers delayed orders due to uncertainty regarding the stimulus bill. International revenues fell 12% from the year-ago level. Majority of this decline was caused by the unfavorable impact of foreign exchange rates. The other factors leading to lower international revenue were the completion of a smart metering/AMI ...