Bankers offers investors capital and income growth from a fund of funds approach to global equities. With £1.22bn net assets, the trust is one of the largest and more liquid in the AIC Global sector. Alex Crooke has been at the helm of the portfolio since 2003, setting geographical allocations for the portfolio, with each of the regional sub-portfolios run by a specialist at Janus Henderson. Each of the major sub-portfolios will typically hold between 25-30 stocks, principally looking for cash generative companies that will grow their dividends going forward. BNKR has a strong track record for capital appreciation, although this has been more varied in recent times. More notably, the trust’s standout characteristic is its dividend growth track record. The company has grown its dividend every year for the past 52 years, and forecasts another increase of 6% for the current year. Furthermore, the company has revenue reserves equal to 1.8x the annual dividend. Currently the trust is trading on a discount of 1%.
