Trustnet Magazine Issue 11 October 2015 | Page 12

IN FOCUS FUND TRUST 0% Nov 14 Nov 13 Nov 12 Nov 11 Nov 10 Nov 09 Nov 08 Nov 07 Nov 06 Nov 05 -50% MANAGER: Sarah Emly & William Meadon PREMIUM/DISCOUNT: -7.7% LAUNCHED: 24/04/1963 ONGOING ANNUAL EXPENSES: 1.09% Source: FE Analytics 10 FTSE All Share (58.88%) 60% 40% 20% 0% -20% -40% -60% Jun 15 50% JP Morgan Claverhouse IT (67.62%) IT UK Equity Income (62.06%) 80% Jun 14 100% 100% Jun 13 150% PERFORMANCE OF TRUST VS SECTOR AND INDEX OVER MANAGER TENURE Jun 12 FTSE All Share (137.26%) proxy” reputation, currently offer significant yields: both Shell and BP’s stand at above 7 per cent. Not only have these blue chips bolstered the trust’s yield, the managers’ stock selection has provided solid returns, with the trust beating its FTSE All Share benchmark over one, three, five and 10 years, despite faring less well against its IT UK Equity Income sector average over one and five. It has outperformed both of these measures over Emly’s tenure, providing a total return to investors of 67.62 per cent. JP Morgan Claverhouse Investment Trust is 17 per cent geared, trades on a 7.7 per cent discount and has an ongoing charge including a performance fee of 0.78 per cent. Jun 11 200% She was joined by co-manager William Meadon six years later. At the end of last month, however, she took a leave of absence due to health reasons, with Meadon managing the fund by himself until her return. Both managers aim to provide attractive levels of growth as well as income, which they do primarily through investing in companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. While the trust’s benchmark is the FTSE All Share index, it has a bias towards income-generating large-cap stocks, with Royal Dutch Shell, British American Tobacco, Lloyds Bank, Imperial Tobacco and BP making up its top-five holdings. These stocks, while making some investors wary due to their “bond Jun 10 Liontrust - Macro Equity Income (205.25%) IA UK Equity Income (145.67%) H overing between the third and second quartile over one, three and five years for its performance, the three FE Crown-rated JP Morgan Claverhouse Investment Trust may not seem remarkable at first glance. However, it has built up the largest dividend reserves within the AIC UK Equity Income sector, according to data from Numis. This allows the trust to cover future pay-outs and, at the moment, it has more than one year’s worth of dividends put aside in preparation for tougher times. This stockpile, which currently amounts to £11.64m, has helped it to consistently increase its dividend over the past 43 years. Data from the AIC shows the trust has raised this measure by an average of 4.2 per cent a year over the past five years. Investment trusts can retain up to 15 per cent of their gross annual income in order to smooth dividends, a characteristic that makes closed-ended funds more appealing than their open-ended counterparts to many incomeseeking investors. Sarah Emly has managed JP Morgan Claverhouse since 2006. Jun 09 250% Not only is this trust trading on a discount, but according to data from Numis, it has the safest dividend in the UK equity income space Jun 08 PERFORMANCE OF FUND VS SECTOR AND INDEX SINCE LAUNCH Nov 04 MANAGERS: Jan Luthman & Stephen Bailey FUND SIZE: £544m LAUNCHED: 31/10/2003 OCF: 0.9% record and the experience of the management team are taken into account. Liontrust Macro Equity Income has been the best performer in the IA UK Equity Income sector since Luthman and Bailey launched it in October 2003, beating the FTSE All Share by 70 percentage points in the process. On top of that, it has also beaten its benchmark in eight out of the last 10 calendar years and has been top quartile for its risk-adjusted returns, annualised volatility and maximum drawdown over that time. That’s the past, of course, but Luthman and Bailey’s approach is conducive for an investor with a long-term horizon. Nov 03 E xperience is the trait valued most in fund managers as, having faced a variety of differing conditions, there is the belief that they are the bestequipped of their peers to deal with whatever the market has to throw at them. There are many experienced managers in the UK equity income space – such as Neil Woodford, Mark Barnett, Francis Brooke and Adrian Frost – but this m