By Annabel Brodie-Smith
Welcome back. I hope you had a great summer.
It’s September - time to go back to school and time for a new investment term.
Despite the markets flying high, we continue to climb the never-ending wall of investment worries, from the more familiar concerns over Brexit and Trump to the recent threat of North Korea’s nuclear capacity. So it’s an opportune time for Andrew Bell, CEO of the large global investment company, Witan, to take us through the opportunities and headwinds that face us as investors and explain why Witan remains fully invested and even decided to increase its borrowing recently.
Over the summer we’ve been working away on the dividend information on our website. UK investment trusts now can pay dividends from capital profits as well as from the income they receive from their own portfolio. A small number of investment companies are paying dividends from capital profits for a specific purpose, so on our site we now show for each member company whether the dividend was paid from income or capital.
We also hear from four member companies, European Assets, Securities Trust of Scotland, JPMorgan Global Growth and Income, and Martin Currie Asia Unconstrained about why they introduced this new policy and the benefits for shareholders.
On enhanced dividend information, we have also introduced the revenue reserve for each company (the undistributed income that the company keeps as reserves). This is the ‘rainy day fund’ that investment companies can use to top up dividends in leaner times, which is made up of income that has been earned in previous years but not paid out.
You can also see the dividend cover (the number of years the current revenue reserves can last, based on paying the last full financial year of dividends).
Teenagers across the country will understandably be excited about starting university soon. However, a recent study from the Institute for Fiscal Studies revealed that the average debt students will have on graduation is a staggering £50,000. We look at how parents and grandparents can save with investment companies to ease the financial burden of university costs.
Finally, the 8th annual VCT and EIS Investor Forum organised by AngelNews will be taking place on 24th November in London. The forum allows private investors to meet with the VCT and EIS fund management community and there is a 25% discount on tickets until the end of September. For more information and to register please follow the link below.
The 2017 Nex Exchange VCT and EIS Investor Forum (London)
See you next month – it feels like autumn has already arrived!
Annabel Brodie-Smith Communications Director, AIC