This was our first introduction to the fund and fund manager. Dan introduced the fund by explaining that he came to Fidelity to launch this strategy. The aim was (and remains) to launch an unconstrained portfolio delivering a dividend based total return with capital preservation at the heart of the philosophy. The USP of the fund is the capital preservation part of the strategy and it is reflective that when markets go down this tends to lose less money because of the types of stocks he picks.
The challenge is that over the last 18 months the fund has struggled, and this is naturally reflecting in the longer-term figures. Dan explained that it has not been a good time for dividend strategies. His strategy is about finding good companies at good valuations. However, low interest rates and low inflation means that there are less opportunities in the market. Combined with this are the disruptors who are taking market share and growing but not paying any dividends…read more