- Russon said the process and philosophy behind the fund is predicated on a “common sense” approach to investing. “We have a fixation on valuations and create concentrated portfolios made up of what we believe to be the highest quality dividend payers in the UK,” he said.
- He added: “Our heritage is based on a plain vanilla, sleep at night approach. We are relatively low risk in our investment style, and this consistency gives our investors reassurance that we will not surprise them with any esoteric or bizarre investment moves.”
- While the fund invests across the UK market in its hunt for yields, Russon said the portfolio tends to favour the large cap, FTSE 100 area, as these names tend to be more geographically diverse and by their nature are a less volatile area of the market.
- Additionally, the fund invests with what Russon calls a total return mindset. He said: “When you run an income biased strategy there is a danger you focus too much on income and neglect capital appreciation. Our aim is to combine the two, namely, to deliver both a yield premium and a capital appreciation premium.”
- In terms of screening, Russon said the fund only invests in companies that pay dividends and avoids those with insufficient free cash flow to drive dividend growth. Starting with an investment universe of the FTSE 350, the end result is some 290 investable companies, with the portfolio holding on average 40-50 names.
Number of holdings
Dividend yield
(versus benchmark 3.16%)