497K 1 d152368d497k.htm AB VARIABLE PRODUCTS SERIES FUND, INC. - INTERNATIONAL VALUE - CLASS B AB Variable Products Series Fund, Inc. - International Value - Class B
LOGO    SUMMARY PROSPECTUS    May 1, 2021

AB Variable Products Series Fund, Inc.

International Value Portfolio—Class B

 

Before you invest, you may want to review the Portfolio’s Prospectus, which contains more information about the Portfolio and its risks. The Portfolio’s Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated May 1, 2021, as may be amended or supplemented, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus. For free paper or electronic copies of the Portfolio’s Prospectus, reports to shareholders and other information about the Portfolio, go to www.abfunds.com/go/prospectus, email a request to prorequest@alliancebernstein.com, call (800) 227-4618, or ask any insurance company that offers shares of the Portfolio.

 

As of May 1, 2021, as permitted by regulations adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, you may not be receiving paper copies of the Portfolio’s shareholder reports from the insurance company that offers your contract unless you have specifically requested paper copies from the insurance company or from your financial intermediary. Instead of delivering paper copies of the reports, the insurance company may choose to make the reports available on a website, and will notify you by mail each time a report is posted and provide you with a website link to access the report. Instructions for requesting paper copies will be provided by your insurance company.

You may elect to receive all future reports in paper free of charge from the insurance company. You can inform the insurance company or your financial intermediary that you wish to continue receiving paper copies of your shareholder reports by following the instructions provided by the insurance company or by contacting your financial intermediary. Your election to receive reports in paper will apply to all portfolio companies available under your contract with the insurance company.

INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE

The Portfolio’s investment objective is long-term growth of capital.

FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Portfolio. Because the information does not reflect deductions at the separate account level or contract level for any charges that may be incurred under a contract, Contractholders that invest in the Portfolio should refer to the variable contract prospectus for a description of fees and expenses that apply to Contractholders. Inclusion of these charges would increase the fees and expenses provided below.

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)

N/A

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

 

 

   

Management Fees

    .75%  

Distribution (12b-1) Fees

    .25%  

Other Expenses:

 

Transfer Agent

    .00% (a) 

Other Expenses

    .17%  
 

 

 

 

Total Other Expenses

    .17%  
 

 

 

 

Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses

    .00% (a) 
 

 

 

 

Total Portfolio Operating Expenses

    1.17%  
 

 

 

 

Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement(b)

    (.01)%  
 

 

 

 

Total Portfolio Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement

    1.16%  
 

 

 

 
   

 

(a)

Amount is less than .01%.

 

(b)

In connection with the Portfolio’s investments in AB Government Money Market Portfolio (the “Money Market Portfolio”) (except for the investment of any cash collateral from securities lending), the Adviser has contractually agreed to waive its management fee from the Portfolio and/or reimburse other expenses of the Portfolio in an amount equal to the Portfolio’s pro rata share of the Money Market Portfolio’s effective management fee, as included in “Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses”. The agreement will remain in effect until May 1, 2022 and may only be terminated or changed with the consent of the Portfolio’s Board of Directors. In addition, the agreement will be automatically extended for one-year terms unless the Adviser provides notice of termination to the Portfolio at least 60 days prior to the end of the period.

 

S-1


Examples

The Examples are intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Examples assume that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Examples also assume that your investment has a 5% return each year, that the Portfolio’s operating expenses stay the same and that any fee waiver and/or expense limitation is in effect for only the first year. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

 

After 1 Year

  $ 118  

After 3 Years

  $ 371  

After 5 Years

  $ 643  
After 10 Years   $ 1,419  

Portfolio Turnover

The Portfolio pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys or sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs. These transaction costs, which are not reflected in the Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses or in the Examples, affect the Portfolio’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Portfolio’s portfolio turnover rate was 54% of the average value of its portfolio.

PRINCIPAL STRATEGIES

The Portfolio invests primarily in a diversified portfolio of equity securities of established companies selected from more than 40 industries and more than 40 developed and emerging market countries. These countries currently include the developed nations in Europe and the Far East, Canada, Australia and emerging market countries worldwide. Under normal market conditions, the Portfolio invests significantly (at least 40%—unless market conditions are not deemed favorable by the Adviser) in securities of non-U.S. companies. In addition, the Portfolio invests, under normal circumstances, in the equity securities of companies located in at least three countries.

The Portfolio invests in companies that are determined by the Adviser to be undervalued, using a fundamental value approach. In selecting securities for the Portfolio’s portfolio, the Adviser uses its fundamental and quantitative research to identify companies whose stocks are priced low in relation to their perceived long-term earnings power.

The Adviser’s fundamental analysis depends heavily upon its internal research staff. The research staff begins with a global research universe of approximately 2,000 international and emerging market companies. Teams within the research staff cover a given industry worldwide to better understand each company’s competitive position in a global context. The Adviser typically projects a company’s financial performance over a full economic cycle, including a trough and a peak, within the context of forecasts for real economic growth, inflation and interest rate changes. The Adviser focuses on the valuation implied by the current price, relative to the earnings the company will be generating five years from now, or “normalized” earnings, assuming average mid-economic cycle growth for the fifth year.

The Portfolio’s management team and other senior investment professionals work in close collaboration to weigh each investment opportunity identified by the research staff relative to the entire portfolio and determine the timing and position size for purchases and sales. Analysts remain responsible for monitoring new developments that would affect the securities they cover. The team will generally sell a security when it no longer meets appropriate valuation criteria, although sales may be delayed when positive return trends are favorable.

Currencies can have a dramatic impact on equity returns, significantly adding to returns in some years and greatly diminishing them in others. The Adviser evaluates currency and equity positions separately and may seek to hedge the currency exposure resulting from securities positions when it finds the currency exposure unattractive. To hedge all or a portion of its currency risk, the Portfolio may, from time to time, invest in currency-related derivatives, including forward currency exchange contracts, futures contracts, options on futures contracts, swaps and options. The Adviser may also seek investment opportunities by taking long or short positions in currencies through the use of currency-related derivatives.

The Portfolio may enter into other derivatives transactions, such as options, futures contracts, forwards and swaps. The Portfolio may use options strategies involving the purchase and/or writing of various combinations of call and/or put options, including on individual securities and stock indices, futures contracts (including futures contracts on individual securities and stock indices) or shares of exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. These transactions may be used, for example, to earn extra income, to adjust exposure to individual securities or markets, or to protect all or a portion of the Portfolio’s portfolio from a decline in value, sometimes within certain ranges.

The Portfolio may, at times, invest in shares of ETFs in lieu of making direct investments in equity securities. ETFs may provide more efficient and economical exposure to the type of companies and geographic locations in which the Portfolio seeks to invest than direct investments. The Portfolio may invest in depositary receipts, instruments of supranational entities denominated in the currency of any country, securities of multinational companies and “semi-governmental securities”, and enter into forward commitments.

 

S-2


PRINCIPAL RISKS

 

Market Risk: The value of the Portfolio’s assets will fluctuate as the stock or bond market fluctuates. The value of its investments may decline, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably, simply because of economic changes or other events, including public health crises (including the occurrence of a contagious disease or illness), that affect large portions of the market. It includes the risk that a particular style of investing, such as the Portfolio’s value approach, may underperform the market generally.

 

 

Foreign (Non-U.S.) Risk: Investments in securities of non-U.S. issuers may involve more risk than those of U.S. issuers. These securities may fluctuate more widely in price and may be more difficult to trade due to adverse market, economic, political, regulatory or other factors.

 

 

Emerging Market Risk: Investments in emerging market countries may have more risk because the markets are less developed and less liquid, and because these investments may be subject to increased economic, political, regulatory or other uncertainties.

 

 

Currency Risk: Fluctuations in currency exchange rates may negatively affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments or reduce its returns.

 

 

Derivatives Risk: Derivatives may be difficult to price or unwind and leveraged so that small changes may produce disproportionate losses for the Portfolio. Derivatives, especially over-the-counter derivatives, are also subject to counterparty risk.

 

 

Leverage Risk: When the Portfolio borrows money or otherwise leverages its portfolio, its net asset value may be more volatile because leverage tends to exaggerate the effect of changes in interest rates and any increase or decrease in the value of the Portfolio’s investments. The Portfolio may create leverage through the use of reverse repurchase agreements, forward commitments, or by borrowing money.

 

 

Management Risk: The Portfolio is subject to management risk because it is an actively-managed investment fund. The Adviser will apply its investment techniques and risk analyses in making investment decisions for the Portfolio, but there is no guarantee that its techniques will produce the intended results. Some of these techniques may incorporate, or rely upon, quantitative models, but there is no guarantee that these models will generate accurate forecasts, reduce risk or otherwise perform as expected.

As with all investments, you may lose money by investing in the Portfolio.

BAR CHART AND PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

The bar chart and performance information provide an indication of the historical risk of an investment in the Portfolio by showing:

 

 

how the Portfolio’s performance changed from year to year over ten years; and

 

 

how the Portfolio’s average annual returns for one, five and ten years compare to those of a broad-based securities market index.

The performance information does not take into account separate account charges. If separate account charges were included, an investor’s return would be lower. The Portfolio’s past performance, of course, does not necessarily indicate how it will perform in the future.

Bar Chart

 

LOGO

 

During the period shown in the bar chart, the Portfolio’s:

Best Quarter was up 20.42%, 4th quarter, 2020; and Worst Quarter was down -30.34%, 1st quarter, 2020.

Performance Table

Average Annual Total Returns

(For the periods ended December 31, 2020)

 

        1 Year        5 Years        10 Years  

Portfolio

       2.21%          2.67%          2.12%  

MSCI EAFE Index (Net)

(reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes except the reinvestment of dividends net of non-U.S. withholding taxes)

       7.82%          7.45%          5.51%  

 

S-3


INVESTMENT ADVISER

AllianceBernstein L.P. is the investment adviser for the Portfolio.

PORTFOLIO MANAGERS

The following table lists the persons responsible for day-to-day management of the Portfolio’s portfolio:

 

Employee    Length of Service    Title
Tawhid Ali    Since 2016    Senior Vice President of the Adviser
Avi Lavi    Since 2012    Senior Vice President of the Adviser
     

PURCHASE AND SALE OF PORTFOLIO SHARES

The Portfolio offers its shares through the separate accounts of participating life insurance companies (“Insurers”). You may only purchase and sell shares through these separate accounts. See the prospectus of the separate account of the Insurer for information on the purchase and sale of the Portfolio’s shares.

TAX INFORMATION

The Portfolio may pay income dividends or make capital gains distributions. The income and capital gains distributions are expected to be made in shares of the Portfolio. See the prospectus of the separate account of the Insurer for federal income tax information.

PAYMENTS TO INSURERS AND OTHER FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES

If you purchase shares of the Portfolio through an Insurer or other financial intermediary, the Portfolio and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Portfolio shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Insurer or other financial intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Portfolio over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

 

    LOGO  

 

S-4