Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities.The Fund invests in a portfolio of common stocks of companies that are located throughout the world, including the United States. The Fund may rely on the country where the issuer is incorporated, is headquartered or has its principal place of business in determining the location of an issuer. Additionally, in pursuing its investment strategies, the Fund may hold significant investments (25% or more of its assets) in a specific market sector, including the consumer staples sector. The Fund is a nondiversified fund.

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 40% (or, if the portfolio manager deems it warranted by market conditions, at least 30%) of its total assets in foreign securities. The Fund may invest up to 80% of its total assets in foreign securities, including securities denominated in currencies other than the US dollar. The Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in emerging markets securities.

The investment process is bottom-up, research-driven. The aim is to produce attractive risk-adjusted long-term returns by investing in understandable, quality businesses with mispriced earnings power. Understandable and quality businesses are reasonably straightforward and void of excessive complexity, excessive debt and relative margin instability. Mispricings occur when shorter term market fluctuations lead to a discount between a stock’s price and its fair value. Fair value is derived from such factors as the long term sales and future earnings potential of a business. Stock selection rests on an assessment of each company and its risk-return profile. Research is centered on understanding the nature and sustainability of how the company creates value, including the associated risks. Businesses identified as attractive are likely to display one or more of these favorable characteristics: solid earnings power and free cash flow generation, sustainable business models and competitive advantages, ability to reinvest at rates above the cost of capital, flexibility to restructure inefficiencies, potential to benefit from consolidation within their industries, and ability to gain market share from competitors.

Screening is a method used for idea generation. A typical screen may exclude stocks under a certain market cap and then further applying numerous valuation, quality and growth metrics hurdles that would effectively reduce the universe further. Survivors would become candidates for fundamental research whereas in-depth analysis occurs to ultimately determine the attractiveness of a stock for potential portfolio admission.

As an overlay to its bottom-up analysis, the Fund’s investment manager, Delaware Management Company (Manager), may consider factors such as the geographical economic environment, the political environment, regulatory policy, geopolitical risk and currency risk. Many of the companies in which the Fund may invest have diverse operations, with products or services in foreign markets. Therefore, the Fund may have indirect exposure to various foreign markets through investments in these companies, even if the Fund is not invested directly in such markets.

Generally, in determining whether to sell a security, the Manager uses the same type of analysis that it uses in buying securities. For example, the Manager may sell a security issued by a company if it believes the company has experienced a fundamental breakdown of its sustainable competitive advantage or no longer offers significant growth potential, if it believes the management of the company has weakened or its margin and/or its valuation appears unsustainable, if it believes there are macro-economic factors that override a company’s fundamentals, and/or there exists political or economic instability in the issuer’s country. The Manager also may sell a security to reduce the Fund’s holding in that security, to take advantage of what it believes are more attractive investment opportunities or to raise cash.

The Fund's Manager may permit its affiliate, Macquarie Investment Management Global Limited (MIMGL), to execute Fund security trades on behalf of the Manager. The Manager may also seek quantitative support from MIMGL.