UK Equity High Income Fund breaks the £500m mark

Fund manger, Standard Life Investments today announced that its award-winning UK Equity High Income Fund has broken through the £500m barrier.

The fund, which is ‘AA’ rated by Standard & Poors, has produced top quartile performance over 1, 2, 3 and 5 years and in the last year alone, has more than doubled its funds under management from £203m.

‘AA’ rated by Citywire, Karen Robertson is manager of the UK Equity High Income Fund. She said: "We are absolutely delighted with the growth in the size of this fund and the on-going level of support from investors. In the last year, it has returned 17.16% to investors against a sector average return of 14.99. In addition to the fund’s strong performance, we have managed to grow its income distribution by an average of 10.5% each year over the last six years.

“In terms of current strategy, we continue to focus on stock selection with a bias to stocks that believe are undervalued where we expect some positive change. In all, we tend to hold around 65-70 stocks with each holding being large enough to have an impact on the fund’s overall performance. We’re currently heavy in Mining, Utilities and General Retailers and underweight Oils, Media and Support Services."

Jacqueline Kerr, Head of Mutual Fund Investments at Standard Life Investments, said: “We are particularly pleased with the performance of this fund which would now be worth £7,271 to an investor who invested £1,000 into the fund at launch. That’s an impressive return by anyone’s standards.

“Key to the fund’s success is the consistent and rigorous investment process adopted by our award-winning UK equities team - a process which takes full advantage of regular contact with senior management and our technical stock selection matrix. I have every confidence that this fund will continue to satisfy the expectations of our investors.”