Funds to watch – assets under management
• Similar to other funds in the sector, the Pictet High Dividend Selection Fund has a bottom-up approach. The difference is that the focus is on companies with high, sustainable dividends rather than total return. The strategy is built around defensive businesses that deliver stable cashflows and offer above-average dividend yields. Managed by a tight team, the portfolio invests in less-volatile sectors such as healthcare, utilities and real estate.
• The Artemis Global Income Fund is unusual in its sector in that it does not just invest in equities; up to 20% of the fund can be in fixed interest and money market instruments. However, it has a remit to select large and mega-cap equities only. Fund manager Jacob de Tusch-Lec (pictured) has a free cashflow generation philosophy. He applies a macro overlay, to consider regional and sector exposures, which complements fundamental bottom-up stock analysis.
• The idea behind the Threadneedle Global Equity Income Fund is that high-dividend yield companies make for superior long-term investments. The fund managers believe that well-established, profitable, cash-generative areas of the market are often overlooked because investors chase returns by sliding up the risk scale. By medium-term positive drivers and long-term growth prospects, this information gap can be exploited.