Securities Trust of Scotland (STS) aims to achieve rising income and long-term capital growth from a concentrated portfolio of large- and mid-cap global equities. Following the move to a higher-yielding and progressive dividend policy in May 2015, from 1 June 2016 STS adopted a new unconstrained, high-conviction investment approach under new manager Mark Whitehead. Performance is now measured versus a peer group of both open and closed-ended funds and in September 2016 gearing was increased from £17m to £25m. The changes appear to be bearing fruit – STS has outperformed its peer group benchmark since the change in investment approach in June 2016.
