497K 1 c64486_497k.htm Untitled Document
TRANSAMERICA FEDERATED MARKET OPPORTUNITY

Summary Prospectus

March 1, 2011

      

Class

CLASS I2

    

& Ticker

Not Applicable

    

This summary prospectus is designed to provide shareholders with key fund information in a clear and concise format. Before you invest, you may want to review the fund’s prospectus, which contains more information about the fund and its risks. You can find the fund’s prospectus and other information about the fund, including the fund’s statement of additional information and most recent reports to shareholders, online at http://www.transamericafunds.com/prospectus. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 866-414-6349 or by sending an e-mail request to orders@mysummaryprospectus.com, or from your financial professional. The fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information, dated March 1, 2011, as supplemented from time to time, and the independent registered public accounting firm’s report and financial statements in the fund’s annual report to shareholders, dated October 31, 2010, are incorporated by reference into this summary prospectus.

Investment Objective: Seeks to provide absolute (positive) returns with low correlation to the U.S. equity market.

Fees and Expenses: This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the fund. There are no sales charges (load) or other transaction fees.

  

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

  

Management fees

0.77%

Distribution and service (12b-1) fees

None

Other expenses

0.12%

Acquired fund fees and expenses (fees and expenses of underlying funds )

0.04%

Total annual fund operating expensesa

0.93%

a Total fund operating expenses do not correlate to the ratios of expenses to average net assets in the financial highlights table, which do not include acquired (i.e., underlying) funds’ fees and expenses.

Example: This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the fund's operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

    

1 year

3 years

5 years

10 years

$95

$296

$515

$1,143

Portfolio Turnover: The fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the Example, affect the fund's performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the portfolio turnover rate was 194% of the average value of the fund's portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies: The fund's sub-adviser, Federated Equity Management Company of Pennsylvania (“Federated”), invests, under normal circumstances, in domestic (including American Depository Receipts (ADRs)) and foreign securities (including emerging markets), both debt and equity, that Federated deems to be undervalued or out-of-favor, and other investments detailed in the strategy below which may include maintaining a cash position invested in traditional cash instruments. Federated may position the fund with respect to various asset classes or individual securities in a net long or net short position.

Federated’s investment management approach may be described as contrarian in nature because the sub-adviser anticipates that it will invest in out-of-favor securities, obtain short exposure on securities that are in favor, or deviate from the consensus view on markets in general, a sector, or individual securities.

The fund may invest in exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), derivative contracts (such as options, swaps and futures contracts) and hybrid investments (such as notes linked to underlying securities, indices or commodities), or sell securities short in order to implement its investment strategy. The fund may buy or sell foreign currencies or enter into foreign currency forwards in lieu of or in addition to non-dollar denominated fixed-income securities in order to increase or decrease its exposure to foreign interest

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rate and/or currency markets. When investing the fixed-income portion of the fund, Federated is not constrained by any duration or maturity range or credit quality.

The fund may invest in commodities by investing in a derivative or other hybrid instrument whose price depends upon the movement of an underlying commodity or by the performance of a commodity index.

The fund may invest its assets in cash, cash equivalent securities or short-term debt securities, repurchase agreements and money market instruments. Under adverse or unstable market, economic or political conditions, the fund may take temporary defensive positions in cash and short-term debt securities without limit.

Principal Risks: Many factors affect the fund's performance. There is no assurance the fund will meet its investment objective. The value of your investment in the fund, as well as the amount of return you receive on your investment, may fluctuate significantly from day to day and over time. You may lose part or all of your investment in the fund or your investment may not perform as well as other similar investments. The following is a summary of certain risks (in alphabetical order) of investing in the fund. You may lose money if you invest in this fund.

· Cash Management and Defensive Investing – Money market instruments or short-term debt securities held by the fund for cash management or defensive investing purposes can fluctuate in value. Like other fixed income securities, they are subject to risk, including market, interest rate and credit risk. If the fund holds cash uninvested, the fund will not earn income on the cash and the fund's yield will go down. If a significant amount of the fund's assets are used for cash management or defensive investing purposes, it will be more difficult for the fund to achieve its objective.

· Commodities – To the extent the fund invests in instruments whose performance is linked to the price of an underlying commodity or commodity index, the fund will be subject to the risks of investing in physical commodities, including regulatory, economic and political developments, weather events and natural disasters and market disruptions. The fund's investment exposure to the commodities markets may subject the fund to greater volatility than investments in more traditional securities, such as stocks and bonds.

· Convertible Securities – The market value of convertible securities tends to decline as interest rates increase. Convertible securities generally offer lower interest or dividend yields than non-convertible securities of similar quality. The fund could lose money if the issuer of a convertible security is unable to meet its financial obligations or goes bankrupt.

· Country, Sector or Industry Focus – To the extent the fund invests a significant portion of its assets in one or more countries, sectors or industries, the fund will be more susceptible to negative events affecting those countries, sectors or industries.

· Currency – When the fund invests in securities denominated in foreign currencies, the fund may incur currency conversion costs and may be affected favorably or unfavorably by changes in the rates of exchange between those currencies and the U.S. dollar. Currency exchange rates can be volatile and are affected by, among other factors, the general economics of a country, the actions of the U.S. and foreign governments or control banks, the imposition of currency controls, and speculation.

· Currency Hedging – The fund may hedge its currency risk using currency futures, forwards or options. However, these instruments may not always work as intended, and a fund may be worse off than if it had not used a hedging instrument.

· Derivatives – Using derivatives can increase fund losses and reduce opportunities for gains when market prices, interest rates or the derivative instruments themselves behave in a way not anticipated by the fund. Using derivatives also can have a leveraging effect and increase fund volatility. Derivatives may be difficult to sell, unwind or value, and the counterparty may default on its obligations to the fund. The fund's investments in derivative instruments may involve a small investment relative to the amount of investment exposure assumed and may result in losses exceeding the amounts invested in those instruments. Recent legislation calls for new regulation of the derivatives markets. The extent and impact of the regulation are not yet fully known and may not be for some time. New regulation of derivatives may make them more costly, may limit their availability, or may otherwise adversely affect their value or performance.

· Emerging Markets – Investing in the securities of issuers located in or principally doing business in emerging markets are subject to foreign securities risks. These risks are greater for investments in emerging markets. Emerging market countries tend to have economic, political and legal systems that are less fully developed and are less stable than those of more advanced countries. Low trading volumes may result in a lack of liquidity and in extreme price volatility.

· Exchange Traded Funds Equity-based ETFs are subject to risks similar to those of stocks; fixed income-based ETFs are subject to risks similar to those of bonds. ETF shares may trade at a premium or discount to NAV. ETFs are subject to secondary market trading risks.

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· Fixed-Income Securities – The market prices of fixed-income securities may go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably due to general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment. When market prices fall, the value of your investment will go down. A rise in rates tends to have a greater impact on the prices of longer term or duration securities.

If interest rates rise, repayments of fixed-income securities may occur more slowly than anticipated by the market. This may drive the prices of these securities down because their interest rates are lower than the current interest rate and they remain outstanding longer. This is sometimes referred to as extension risk.

Many issuers have a right to prepay their securities. If interest rates fall, an issuer may exercise this right. If this happens, the fund will be forced to reinvest prepayment proceeds at a time when yields on securities available in the market are lower than the yield on the prepaid security. This is sometimes referred to as prepayment or call risk.

· Foreign Securities – Foreign securities are subject to a number of additional risks, including nationalization or expropriation of assets, imposition of currency controls or restrictions, confiscatory taxation, political or financial instability and other adverse economic or political developments. Lack of information and less market regulation also may affect the value of these securities.

· High-Yield Debt Securities – High-yield debt securities, or junk bonds, are securities that are rated below “investment grade” (that is, securities rated below Baa/BBB) or, if unrated, are considered by the sub-adviser to be of equivalent quality. Changes in interest rates, the market’s perception of the issuers and the creditworthiness of the issuers may significantly affect the value of these bonds. Junk bonds have a higher risk of default, tend to be less liquid and may be more difficult to value.

· Hybrid Instruments The risks of investing in hybrid instruments include a combination of the risks of investing in securities, commodities, options, futures, and currencies. An investment in a hybrid instrument may entail significant risks in addition to those associated with traditional fixed-income or convertible securities.

· Increase in Expenses – Your actual costs of investing in the fund may be higher than the expenses shown in “Annual Fund Operating Expenses” for a variety of reasons. For example, expense ratios may be higher than those shown if average net assets decrease. Net assets are more likely to decrease and fund expense ratios are more likely to increase when markets are volatile.

· Investment Companies – To the extent that an underlying fund invests in other investment companies, such as exchange-traded funds, it is subject to the risks of these investment companies and bears its pro rata share of the investment companies’ expenses.

· Leveraging – The value of your investment may be more volatile if the fund borrows or uses derivatives that have a leveraging effect on the fund. Other risks also will be compounded. This is because leverage generally magnifies the effect of a change in the value of an asset and creates a risk of loss of value on a larger pool of assets than the fund would otherwise have had. The fund also may have to sell assets at inopportune times to satisfy its obligations.

· Liquidity – Some securities held by the fund may be difficult to sell, or illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. Illiquid securities may also be difficult to value. If the fund is forced to sell an illiquid asset to meet redemption requests or other cash needs, the fund may be forced to sell at a loss.

· Market – The market prices of the fund's securities may go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates or currency rates, lack of liquidity in the markets or adverse investor sentiment. Market prices of securities also may go down due to events or conditions that affect particular sectors or issuers. When market prices fall, the value of your investment will go down. The fund may experience a substantial or complete loss on any individual security. The recent financial crisis has caused a significant decline in the value and liquidity of many securities. In response to the financial crisis, the U.S. and other governments and the Federal Reserve and certain foreign central banks have taken steps to support financial markets. The withdrawal of this support could negatively affect the value and liquidity of certain securities. In addition, legislation recently enacted in the U.S. calls for changes in many aspects of financial regulation. The impact of the legislation on the markets, and the practical implications for market participants, may not be fully known for some time.

· Portfolio Selection – The sub-adviser’s judgment about a particular security or issuer, or about the economy or a particular sector, region or market segment, or about an investment strategy, may prove to be incorrect.

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· Portfolio Turnover – The fund's investment strategy may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. High portfolio turnover would result in a correspondingly greater brokerage commission expenses and may result in the distribution to shareholders of additional capital gains for tax purposes. These factors may negatively affect the fund's performance.

· REITs – When the fund invests in Real Estate Investment Trusts (“REITs”), it is subject to risks generally associated with investing in real estate. A REIT’s performance depends on the types and locations of the properties it owns and how well it manages those properties or loan financings. REITs are subject to a highly technical tax structure; and the failure to qualify as a REIT could result in corporate-level taxation, significantly reducing the return on an investment to the fund.

· Repurchase Agreements – If the other party to a repurchase agreement defaults on its obligation, the fund may suffer delays and incur costs or lose money in exercising its rights under the agreement. If the seller fails to repurchase the security and the market value declines, the fund could lose money. If the seller becomes insolvent and subject to liquidation or reorganization under applicable bankruptcy or other laws, the fund's ability to dispose of the underlying securities may be restricted.

· Short Sales – A short sale may be effected by selling a security that the fund does not own. If the price of the security sold short increases, the fund would incur a loss; conversely, if the price declines, the fund will realize a gain. Although the gain is limited by the price at which the security was sold short, the loss is potentially unlimited. The fund may also pay transaction costs and borrowing fees in connection with short sales.

· Small- or Medium-Sized Companies – Small- or medium-sized companies may be more at risk than larger companies because, among other things, they may have limited product lines, operating history, market or financial resources, or because they may depend on a limited management group.

· Stocks – Stocks may be volatile – their prices may go up and down dramatically over the shorter term. These price movements may result from factors affecting individual companies, industries, the securities market as a whole or the over-all economy.

· Tax – In order to qualify as a regulated investment company (“RIC”) under the Internal Revenue Code, the fund must meet certain requirements regarding, among other things, the source of its income. Any income the fund derives from investments in certain hard asset ETFs, such as certain commodity ETFs, and from other non-qualifying sources must be limited to a maximum of 10% of the fund's gross income. If the fund fails to meet those requirements, the fund may be subject to federal income tax on its net income at regular corporate rates (without reduction for distributions to shareholders). When distributed, that income would also be taxable to shareholders as an ordinary dividend to the extent attributable to the fund's earnings and profits. If the fund were to fail to qualify as a RIC shareholders of the fund could realize significantly diminished returns from their investment in the fund.

· Value Investing – The prices of securities the sub-adviser believes are undervalued may not appreciate as anticipated or may go down. Value stocks as a group may be out of favor and underperform the overall equity market for a long period of time, for example, while the market favors “growth” stocks.

Performance: The bar chart and the table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the fund by showing you how the fund’s performance has varied from year to year, and how the fund’s Class I2 average annual total returns for different periods compare to the returns of a broad measure of market performance, as well as comparison to a secondary index which has characteristics relevant to the fund’s investment strategies. The table shows average annual total returns for Class I2 shares of the fund. Absent any limitation of the fund’s expenses, total returns would be lower. As with all mutual funds, past performance (before and after taxes) is not a prediction of future results. Updated performance information is available on our website at www.transamericafunds.com or by calling 1-888-233-4339.

Annual Total Returns (calendar years ended December 31)

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Quarter Ended

Return

Best Quarter:

6/30/2010

5.19%

Worst Quarter:

12/31/2008

-5.23%

Average Annual Total Returns (periods ended December 31, 2010)1

    
 

1 Year

5 Years

10 Years or Inception

Class I2 (commenced operations on December 6, 2005)

Return before taxes

-0.62%

0.17%

0.18%

Return after taxes on distributions2

-0.90%

-0.64%

-0.64%

Return after taxes on distributions and sale of fund shares2

-0.30%

-0.22%

-0.22%

Russell 3000® Value Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes)

16.23%

1.45%

1.30%

Bank of America Merrill Lynch 3-Month Treasury Bill Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)

0.13%

2.43%

2.45%

1 Actual returns may depend on the investor’s individual tax situation. After-tax returns may not be relevant if the investment is made through a tax-exempt or tax-deferred account, such as a 401(k) plan.

2 The after-tax returns are calculated using the historic highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes.

Management:

Investment Adviser: Sub-Adviser:

Transamerica Asset Management, Inc.  Federated Equity Management Company of Pennsylvania

Portfolio Managers:

Douglas C. Noland, Senior Portfolio Manager since 2010

Dana L. Meissner, CFA, Portfolio Manager since 2009

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares: Class I2 shares of the fund are currently primarily offered for investment in certain funds of funds (also referred to as “strategic asset allocation funds”). Class I2 shares of the fund are also made available to other investors, including institutional investors such as foreign insurers, domestic insurance companies and their separate accounts, and unaffiliated funds, high net worth individuals, and eligible retirement plans whose recordkeepers or financial service firm intermediaries have entered into agreements with Transamerica Funds or its agents. Investors who received Class I2 shares in connection with the reorganization of a Transamerica Premier Fund into a Transamerica Fund may continue to invest in Class I2 shares of that Transamerica Fund, but may not open new accounts. You buy and redeem shares at the fund’s next-determined net asset value (NAV) after receipt of your request in good order.

Tax Information: Fund distributions may be taxable as ordinary income or capital gains, except when your investment is in an IRA, 401(k) or other tax-advantaged investment plan.

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries: If you purchase the fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary, the fund and/or its affiliates may pay the intermediary for the sale of fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

MSPAI20311FMO

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