Defensive strategy pays off for PLI
- Created:
- 29 June 2009
- Written by:
- Mark Robinson
The objective of Perpetual Income & Growth Investment Trust (PLI) is to generate capital growth with a higher than average income from investments in the UK equity market. With UK distribution levels under renewed pressure, it's as well that the Trust's portfolio manager Mark Barnett employs a flexible, bottom-up, stock-picking strategy.
Over the last three years, PLI achieved the best NAV performance in the Association of Investment Companies' UK Growth & Income sector. This still equates to -11.8 per cent, but as the general decline was nearly double that figure, Mark Barnett will probably be thankful that the Trust put up the shutters long before many fellow constituents of the UK Growth & Income sector.
The trust's NAV fell by 9 per cent in the six months to September 2008, but this compared favourably with the general market decline and reflected the switch to an increasingly defensive allocation. Exposure had already been minimised in relation to the banks, together with cyclical sectors such as housebuilding and retail. Instead, focus was switched to well capitalised businesses in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, tobacco and power generation.
Mark Barnett maintains that large-cap companies will "dominate the structure of the portfolio for the foreseeable future" as the ability to generate consistent cash flows is now crucial to the maintenance of yields, but he has also increased PLI's gearing to 121 per cent in recent months to take advantage of "some extremely good opportunities to buy shares in undervalued companies in this market".
PERPETUAL INCOME & GROWTH (PLI)
|
| PRICE |
184p |
NAV |
185.89p |
| SIZE OF FUND |
?471m |
PRICE DISCOUNT TO NAV |
-1.56%* |
No OF HOLDINGS:
|
60 |
1 YEAR PRICE PERFORMANCE |
-14.49%* |
| SET UP DATE |
21 Mar 96 |
3 YEAR PRICE PERFORMANCE |
-18.67%* |
| MANAGER START DATE |
30 Dec 05 |
5 YEAR PRICE PERFORMANCE |
15.82%* |
| BETA |
0.86 |
TOTAL EXPENSE RATIO |
1.69%** |
| VOLATILITY |
4** |
YIELD |
4.645%* |
| TRACKING ERROR |
na |
GEARING |
121.56* |
| SHARPE RATIO |
-0.52** |
MORE DETAILS |
investmenttrusts.invescoperpetual.co.uk |
Source: Invesco Perpetual, *Thomson/Datastream & **Morningstar
Holdings as at 31 May 2009
Top 10 holdings
| Holding |
Percentage |
| BG |
5.9 |
| Imperial Tobacco |
5.3 |
| BP |
5 |
| AstraZeneca |
4.6 |
| GlaxoSmithKline |
4.5 |
| Reynolds American (US Common Stock) |
4.5 |
| British American Tobacco |
4.5 |
| Vodafone |
4.4 |
| Tesco |
4.2 |
| National Grid |
3.4 |
Sector breakdown
| Asset Allocation |
Percentage |
| Utilities |
17.3 |
| Consumer Goods |
16.5 |
| Oil & Gas |
14.3 |
| Healthcare |
13.6 |
| Industrials |
11.2 |
| Financials |
9.4 |
| Telecommunications |
7.6 |
| Consumer Services |
7 |
| Total Additional Sectors |
3.1 |
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