Bestinvest says
The fund attracted a substantial following as Credit Suisse Income under the the stewardship of Bill Mott in the 1990s. Mott later took the helm once more (when the fund was outsourced to PSigma), but the fund has recently been brought in-house by Premier. Though the new manager's track record is reasonable, we have higher conviction in other funds in the IMA UK Equity Income sector. Our top rated UK equity income funds include BlackRock UK Income, Threadneedle UK Equity Income and Artemis Income.
The fund's investment process is initially influenced by top-down thematic investing, that is the manager considers the state of the world from an economic perspective and how that may influence various sectors and stocks. Then within this framework, i.e. once investment themes have been identified, stocks that fit into such categories are then analysed in their own right. Typically the manager will target three types of companies that may benefit from such themes:
- GARP (Growth at a Reasonable Price) - companies that are growing fast but are under appreciated by the market.
- Value investments - companies that are trading below their intrinsic worth.
- Special Situations.
The manager believes in backing his convictions, therefore the fund's portfolio is concentrated, although the manager does have an awareness of his bets relative to the benchmark, the FTSE All Share index.