Guinness European Equity Income Fund

Although the Fund is designed to invest in dividend-paying companies, our starting point in selecting our investment universe is to identify companies with consistently high return on capital. Specifically, we look at companies that have a return on capital of greater than 8% in each of the previous eight years. Our analysis shows that such companies are highly likely to continue to do so in the future – meaning they will continue to create shareholder value. On average, only 3% of European listed companies achieve our criteria, and we then exclude those less than $0.5 billion in size or with weak balance sheets. This gives us a pool of around 200 companies from which to build our portfolio.

In-depth proprietary modelling of a company’s cash flow, capital budgeting and potential for dividend growth is combined with a subjective analysis of its business model to identify candidates for inclusion in the final portfolio. By selecting companies from a broad range of industries, countries, and market capitalisation we aim to create a well-diversified portfolio which can provide a reasonable dividend yield and growing income stream at an attractive valuation relative to the broad market.

The portfolio is concentrated, with 30 equally weighted holdings. This structure ensures limited stock-specific risk, sell discipline and independence from any benchmark. It also precludes a long tail of small holdings and keeps the portfolio focused on our best ideas.

"Dividends make a gradual but potent contribution to long-term returns."

The European region includes a diversified mix of developed, high-income economies, and is home to around 700m people. Europe has gone through a turbulent time since the 2008/09 banking crisis, both politically and economically. However, due to its diversity, size and exposure to the global market, Europe has navigated this period better than some less developed regions.

Europe has been close to the centre of all aspects of globalisation and has world-leading companies in almost all sectors of the market. Europe also has a large proportion of high quality companies; businesses that can generate persistently high returns and that have demonstrated they can weather a variety of economic storms – and it is companies with these characteristics that are best placed to pay consistent and growing dividends.

Dividend-paying companies are well known to outperform the market in the long term, and companies that grow their dividend year-on-year even more so. Rising dividend payments can also protect against inflation over long periods.

In Europe, there is a well-established dividend paying culture going back to the 17th century, when the Dutch East India Company became the first company to pay a dividend. Companies have been committed to distributing profits to shareholders in this way ever since, reflecting not just history but also good capital discipline on the part of management teams.

"There is a long-term investment opportunity in Europe. But opportunity and risk in this region are inseparable, for better or for worse. The key is identifying proven companies and constructing a portfolio best positioned to take advantage of that opportunity."