ISA investors offered up to £140 extra units in 'top decile' fund

F&C Investments is slashing 2 per cent off the initial charge on one of its top performing funds, the F&C UK Growth & Income Fund, up until 27 April 2007.

The saving equates to £140 of extra investment on a £7,000 Individual Savings Account (ISA) investment into the fund. The special offer applies to both ISA and non-ISA investments and is also available for fund purchases via a range of major fund supermarkets including FundsNetwork and Cofunds.

The F&C UK Growth & Income Fund is run by leading manager Ted Scott, winner of the 2005 Citywire UK Equity Income Manager of the Year Award. His pedigree as an equity income fund manager has been built on the success of the Stewardship Income Fund, a strict ethical fund, which has nevertheless posted one of the strongest returns of any equity income fund. Recently the Stewardship Income Fund was highlighted for the fourth consecutive year as one of the 12 best equity income funds and the only ethical fund in the influential White List Report published by respected independent advisers Principal Investment Management.

Jason Hollands, Director, Head of Communications at F&C explained: "F&C UK Growth & Income follows a similar investment strategy to Stewardship Income in that it targets a combination of companies with the prospect to deliver capital growth and others which have above average dividends. The difference is that this fund does not have Stewardship Income's ethical-restrictions. This "gloves off" approach has delivered stellar performance since Ted took over the management of the fund. It has been a huge performance turnaround success story that now deserves to be on the radar of investors and their advisers. Although the fund has grown from just £15 million since Ted assumed control in July 2005 to around £71 million today, it is still a fraction of the size of other leading equity income funds and therefore has the capacity to grow considerably without impacting performance. Together, F&C UK Growth & Income and Stewardship Income, offer two great choices for investors seeking a combination of growth and income."

A strong supporter of the F&C UK Growth & Income Fund is Mark Dampier, Head of Research at leading IFA firm Hargreaves Lansdown who commented: "Ted Scott has done a cracking job. Since taking over the F&C UK Growth & Income Fund in July 2005, Scott has turned this Fund around and propelled it into the top decile* where it now challenges the biggest names in equity income."