Bestinvest says
The emphasis on dividend growth and sustainability has served the fund well since its launch. Ideally we would like to see a longer track record, although he achieved impressive numbers on a previous mandate for which he was responsible, but we have been impressed by James' stock picking abilities on the numerous times that we have met him. Furthermore we believe that the identification of long term winning companies and a low turnover is suitable for most income investors. It is possible to generate a higher yield from European equities than the one produced by this portfolio ,but the fund offers better total return as well a still healthy yield.
The fund invests in European equities and aims to produce a yield of 115% of the FTSE Europe ex-UK index yield.
The fund largely focuses on stock picking rather than focusing overly on the market conditions. The starting point for the stock picking is the sustainability and growth of the dividend. About half of the portfolio will be invested in companies that have a substantial record of paying a healthy dividend to investors where James feels that this is going to continue. About a third of the portfolio invests in companies that are undergoing a high rate of growth in their dividend. The remainder will focus on more 'special situation' type stocks, specifically where James disagrees with the market forecast that the dividend is likely to be cut.
James has the extensive resource of Standard Life's analyst desk although he very much takes responsibility for each stock in the portfolio. Similarly James has the resource of Standard Life's Matrix scoring system and whilst he does use this it forms more of a reference point than for most of SL's managers we have met.