ProShares Launches First Inverse Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

ProShares, a premier provider of alternative exchange traded funds (ETFs), today announced the launch of the first ETF in the United States that provides inverse exposure to the investment grade corporate bond market.

The ProShares Short Investment Grade Corporate (NYSE: IGS) seeks to provide -1x the daily performance of the Markit iBoxx® $ Liquid Investment Grade Index, before fees and expenses. The ETF lists on NYSE Arca today.

“There are signs that investment grade corporate bonds could possibly be richly valued relative to historical levels. Since the financial crisis, investment grade corporate bond indexes have reached record highs1, and credit spreads have tightened significantly,” said Michael L. Sapir, Chairman and CEO of ProShare Advisors LLC, ProShares' investment advisor. “For investors who believe that investment grade corporates could come under pressure, IGS can be used to help hedge against or to seek to benefit from potential declines.”

IGS expands ProShares’ popular lineup of inverse bond ETFs to six. ProShares’ four inverse Treasury bond ETFs have garnered more than $7 billion of assets since launching less than three years ago. The firm launched its fifth inverse bond fund, ProShares Short High Yield (NYSE: SJB), last week.

* Before fees and expenses

1 Merrill Lynch’s U.S. Corporate Master Index and Markit iBoxx $ Liquid Investment Grade Index

About ProShares

ProShares is a premier provider of alternative ETFs, with 117 funds and more than $26 billion in assets. ProShares offers the largest family of geared (leveraged and inverse) ETFs2. ProShares is part of ProFunds Group, which was founded in 1997 and includes more than $32 billion in mutual fund and ETF assets3.

2 Source: Lipper, based on a worldwide analysis of all of the known providers of funds in these categories. The analysis covered ETFs, ETNs and mutual funds by the number of funds and assets as of 6/30/2010.

3 Assets as of 3/11/2011.

Leveraged and inverse ProShares and ProFunds seek returns that are multiples or inverse multiples (e.g., 2x, -2x) of the return of an index or other benchmark (target) for a single day. Due to the compounding of daily returns, leveraged and inverse ProShares’ and ProFunds’ returns over periods other than one day will likely differ in amount and possibly direction from the target return for the same period. Investors should monitor their holdings consistent with their strategies, as frequently as daily, and rebalance if necessary. A rebalancing strategy involves transaction costs and may have tax consequences.

Disclosure:

Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. ProShares and ProFunds are non-diversified and entail certain risks, including risk associated with the use of derivatives (swap agreements, futures contracts and similar instruments), imperfect benchmark correlation, leverage and market price variance, all of which can increase volatility and decrease performance. Bond values will fall when interest rates rise. Short ProShares and ProFunds should lose money when their benchmarks or indexes rise. See the prospectus for a more complete description of risks. There is no guarantee any ProShares ETF or ProFund will achieve its investment objective.

Carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of ProShares and ProFunds before investing. This and other information can be found in their summary and full prospectuses. Read them carefully before investing. Obtain them at www.proshares.com or www.profunds.com.

The Markit iBoxx $ Liquid Investment Grade Index is a modified market-value weighted index designed to provide a balanced representation of U.S. dollar-denominated investment grade corporate bonds publicly offered in the United States by means of including the most liquid investment grade corporate bonds available as determined by the index provider. iBoxx® is a registered trademark of Markit Indices Limited and has been licensed for use by ProShares. Markit does not approve, endorse or recommend ProShares or ProShares Short Investment Grade Corporate, and makes no representation regarding the suitability of investing in ProShares Short Investment Grade Corporate.

"ProFunds Group" includes ProFunds mutual funds and ProShares ETFs. ProFunds mutual funds are distributed by ProFunds Distributors, Inc.

ProShares are distributed by SEI Investments Distribution Co., which is not affiliated with ProFunds Group or its affiliates.