Henderson International Income Trust - Buying good companies at attractive valuations

Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) is meeting its long-term objectives to provide both rising income and capital appreciation. It adopted a more generous dividend policy in 2021 and its 4.7% dividend yield is the highest among its peers. HINT has also delivered average annualised gains of 8.4% in NAV terms over the 10 years ended December 2023. However, the manager’s cautious, balanced stance, which favours value and defensive names and underweights the US, has underperformed recently d

Henderson International Income Trust - Playing recent events well

Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) offers a diversified investment solution for those seeking capital growth and income opportunities outside the UK, where dividend income is relatively concentrated. Recent relative performance has improved, as underweights to the US and to IT and other growth stocks, which have previously hurt performance, are now boosting relative returns and should leave HINT well placed to cope with the persistently uncertain global environment. Overweights to Europ

Henderson International Income Trust - Beating inflation with covered dividend

Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) has succeeded in achieving its dual objectives of capital gains and a high and growing dividend. Annualised NAV total return (TR) of 9.4% over the 10 years to end November 2022 is complemented by an average, inflation-beating rate of 5% per year since inception, representing a 4.2% dividend yield. HINT’s focus on income and geographic diversification (see Edison’s January 2022 report for details) and value means that performance has lagged the benchmar

Henderson International Income Trust - Inflation-beating dividend growth

Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) has succeeded in achieving its dual objectives of capital gains and a high and growing dividend. It has delivered an average annualised total return of 11.3% on an NAV basis over the 10 years to end May 2022, although its focus on income diversification (see chart below) and value means that performance has lagged the index return of 11.6% over this period. At the same time, dividend payments have increased at an average, inflation-beating rate of 5% p

Henderson International Income Trust - High and rising dividends look set to continue

Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) celebrated its 10th anniversary during 2021 and, over the past decade, the trust has succeeded in achieving its dual objectives – it has delivered an average annualised total return (NAV) of 11.1% over the 10 years to end December 2021, and dividend payments have increased every year. The board recently announced an enhanced dividend policy, which looks set to ensure that the trust will maintain this dividend track record over the coming decade. Ben Lo

Henderson International Income Trust - Reliable and rising income despite tough times

Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) offers UK-based investors a unique source of diversified income, by investing in a portfolio of non-UK shares. It is the only global equity investment trust to totally exclude the UK market, where dividend concentration is high compared to global markets (see chart below). HINT aims to deliver a growing annual dividend and capital appreciation. Manager Ben Lofthouse uses a value-driven approach, focused on companies with strong cash flow and the potent

Henderson International Income Trust - Rising overseas income and solid total returns

Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) aims to provide UK-based investors with a unique, diversified source of income by investing in overseas markets. It is the only global equity income investment trust to totally exclude the UK market, which has high dividend concentration compared to global markets (see chart below). The manager, Ben Lofthouse, adopts a value-driven approach that targets fundamentally good businesses, with high barriers to entry, sustainable cash flows, solid growth pro

Henderson International Income Trust - Overseas income fund with attractive total returns

Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) was launched in 2011 with the aim of enabling UK-based investors to diversify their sources of income by investing overseas. As shown in the chart below, the UK market suffers a high degree of dividend concentration, with the top 10 dividend payers accounting for 55% of total UK dividends in 2018 compared with 9% for the top 10 payers globally. Since launch, HINT’s investors have enjoyed total returns of c 10% a year, supported by well-covered dividend

Henderson International Income Trust - New growth plans for overseas income specialist

Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) has been proposed as the default rollover vehicle in the forthcoming planned liquidation of the Establishment Investment Trust, further cementing its position as a trust with a commitment to achieving the benefits of scale (its assets have grown sevenfold since launch in 2011). It has also recently locked in €30m of long-term borrowing with a low interest rate of 2.43%, which may allow the manager, Ben Lofthouse, to be more adventurous with gearing in

Best in class

Today, we introduce our investment trust ratings. According to the quantitative screens we have selected in an attempt to highlight the best performers in the closed-ended universe, the trusts discussed here have been the best in their classes over the last five years. We have selected trusts using two different sets of criteria, aiming to identify the top performers for capital growth and for achieving a high and growing income. There are many rating systems for open-ended funds, but no quantit

Henderson International Income Trust - One-stop shop for ex-UK equity income

Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) invests in companies outside the UK, in order to provide a source of income diversification for investors who may already have sufficient exposure to the domestic market. It is the only fund in the AIC Global Equity Income sector with a specifically ex-UK remit. Relative performance has dipped recently, largely as a result of HINT’s structural underweight to the US, which dominates the MSCI World ex-UK index. However, manager Ben Lofthouse is finding a

Henderson International Income - Overview

Henderson International Income is value-orientated portfolio of global dividend-paying equities that aims to deliver a growing income stream combined with attractive capital appreciation over the medium to long- term. The portfolio is managed by Ben Lofthouse, who is a valuation driven investor who focuses on undervalued companies that can generate strong free cash flow and, therefore, potentially produce a sustainable and growing dividend. Typically, he looks for companies run by strong managem

An unhealthy addiction?

We have highlighted, on many occasions, the high level of concentration among UK equity income funds – in particular, the fact that many managers in the AIC UK Equity Income and IA UK Equity Income sectors rely on a small handful of mega-cap FTSE stocks for their dividends. This isn’t necessarily an issue in itself, but the fact many of these companies are fundamentally challenged due to low levels of dividend cover compounds the potential problems going forward. For example, in a piece of resea

Henderson International Income Trust - Value and income from focused ex-UK specialist

Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) is the only global equity income investment trust offering a portfolio invested wholly outside the UK. Its aim is to provide a focused yet diversified selection of overseas companies offering attractive, sustainable yields and the potential for both dividend growth and capital appreciation. Manager Ben Lofthouse has recently increased the cyclical bias of the portfolio, seeing attractively valued opportunities in areas such as financial and consumer st

Morning Note – 22 April 2024

Benefits of scale set to materialise

Frenkel Topping - Resilient with strong growth potential

FY 2023 was a challenging year for Frenkel with higher interest rates encouraging clients to place money into lower margin money market funds. Despite this, sales grew +32% (supported by recurring revenue +9% and +51% in non-recurring), EBIT margins remained strong at 22% and adj. EPS grew +17% (taking into account the higher number of shares). FY 2024 has seen a solid start to transactional business and there is a strong pipeline of new FUM opportunities both of which support further growth. Wi

S&U - PBT ahead, encouraging volume trends

S&U reported FY24 PBT of £33.6m, down from £41.4m in FY23 on higher funding and regulatory costs and higher impairments in Advantage in H2. PBT was 2% ahead of our forecast as stronger revenues – up 12% to £115.4m – and better costs offset higher-than-expected impairments. Net receivables grew to a record at both Advantage and Aspen and management noted particular strength in Q4 and a good trading environment in the current year. Having absorbed a significant rise in funding cost as well as addi

Hardman & Co Insight: 2023 was an annus horribilis for Quoted UK Infrastructure and Renewable Energy

The focus of Hardman & Co Research is on the nine quoted Infrastructure Investment Companies (IICs) and on the 22 Renewable Energy Infrastructure Funds (REIFs): the stocks analysed are all members of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC). We are updating our publication of January 2023, assessing both the lacklustre share price performances during 2023 and the key issues, including interest rates, inflation and power prices. As a 31-strong group, its combined market capitalisation is no

Foresight Solar Fund - Termination of coverage

Edison Investment Research is terminating coverage on ABC Arbitrage (ABCA), paragon (PGN), Foresight Solar Fund (FSFL), Kendrion (KENDR), Lithium Power International (LPI), Triple Point Energy Transition (TENT), 4iG (4IG), e-therapeutics (ETX), Pharnext (ALPHA) and Shield Therapeutics (STX). Please note you should no longer rely on any previous research or estimates for this company. All forecasts should now be considered redundant. Previously published reports can still be accessed via our web

LIBERUM: PayPoint: On track for £100m of EBITDA in FY 26

LIBERUM: Speedy Hire: Weakness in FY 24 but recovery in FY 25

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 22 April 2024

22nd April 2024 * A corporate client of Hybridan LLP ** Arranged by type of listing and date of announcement *** Alphabetically arranged **** Potential means Intention to Float (ITF) has been announced Dish of the day Admissions: Delistings: What’s baking in the oven? ** Potential**** Initial Public Offerings: Reverse Takeovers: 16 April 2024: Electric Guitar (ELEG.L) Concurrent with its Admission to trading on AIM, Electric Guitar is proposing to acquire the entire issued share capital of 3radi

The Hardman & Co Monthly: April 2024

Feature article: Steady as she goes, but could be better: A review of investment company liquidity since 2016 Liquidity is the lifeblood of equity markets. The measurement of liquid asset availability to a market or company is a way of gauging a market’s health. This article builds on our previous work, which analysed the liquidity data for non-financial trading companies, by applying the same analytical techniques to the investment companies (IC) space. We analyse liquidity for ICs as a whol

Regional REIT - Performing as expected ahead of refinancing

In a challenging market, Regional REIT’s (RGL’s) FY23 operational and financial performance was robust, in line with expectations and previous guidance. Investor focus remains on the company’s loan to value (LTV) reduction and bond refinancing plans, explored in detail in our previous note and RGL will provide an update on this in due course.

Foxtons Group (FOXT LN) - 1Q24 IMS shows real momentum

Foxtons Group plc first quarter revenue rose 9% to £35.7m (1Q23: £32.9m) with growth delivered across all business segments. Trading is in line with management's expectations.

Morning Note – 29 February 2024

Jupiter Green

Hardman & Co Insight - Asset managers had a poor 2022

Asset managers had a poor 2022: the S&P Composite 1500 Asset Management Index was down 22% and, according to the Investment Company Institute (ICI), worldwide mutual funds fell by 20%, from $76tr to $60tr. When bond and equity markets fall, the results are unlikely to be pretty: with revenues trending down and multiples contracting, there is a double whammy to contend with. So how do valuations shape up now, after a bullish start to the new year? The first chart is my favourite chart of asset m