JPMorgan Global Growth & Income 05 June 2024
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Disclosure – Non-Independent Marketing Communication
This is a non-independent marketing communication commissioned by JPMorgan Global Growth & Income. The report has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and is not subject to any prohibition on the dealing ahead of the dissemination of investment research.
The past couple of years have seen JPMorgan Global Growth and Income (JGGI) merge with three trusts: Scottish Investment Trust (SCIN), JPMorgan Elect in 2022, and more recently JPMorgan Multi-Asset Growth and Income (MATE). This has contributed to the significant growth in JGGI’s net assets from £723m to £2.5bn at the time of writing. JGGI is now by some way the largest trust in the AIC Global Equity Income sector. Along with greater liquidity for investors of all sizes, this has brought a reduction in its ongoing charges .
This success in raising money – the trust has regularly issued shares notwithstanding the mergers – is built on excellent performance, the trust being the leading performer in the sector and outperforming global equity indexes over multiple time frames (see Performance). JGGI has been managed by Helge Skibeli for five years, Tim Woodhouse – who joined the team as co-manager in 2017 – and more recently by James Cook. The managers have access to JPMorgan’s expansive team of analysts, driving equity research from across the globe, who are aligned through a central research process focusing on quality and valuations, leading to a high competition for capital.
JGGI pays a Dividend equal to 4% of the trust’s financial year-end NAV. Given it isn’t reliant on the underlying income to pay the dividend, the managers have greater flexibility to invest in wherever they see high quality and attractively valued opportunities. This has allowed them to manage the portfolio with a greater allocation to growthier equities which, alongside their awareness for managing the risk exposures of the portfolio, have contributed to its success.
JGGI has been awarded a Kepler Income and Growth rating for 2024.
In our view, a third merger of assets in as many years highlights the quality of JGGI’s strategy which has seen JGGI significantly increase in size, with regular issuance on top of the mergers, bringing with it greater liquidity. Furthermore, thanks to a tiered management fee structure, as the trust continues to grow it will benefit from a greater proportion of assets in the cheapest tier, which will have a significant impact on charges over time. Given its continued growth in 2024, the fees should already be lower on an ongoing basis. These two characteristics alone mean we think it will appeal to an ever wider pool of investors.
A key reason for the success in raising such large amounts of money is that JGGI’s performance has been impressive versus the sector and a range of global equity indexes as it has benefitted from the greater allocation to growthier areas of the market that have driven markets over much of the past five years. That said, the managers’ stock selection has proven to consistently deliver alpha regardless of the stylistic biases driving markets. Moreover, from a total return perspective, this has also helped grow the dividend, which at 4% of financial year-end NAV is an attractive feature. Therefore, we believe that JGGI is an easy choice for a wide range of investors who are seeking a ready-made core global equity portfolio, or for those looking to enhance their income growth or capital growth amongst a broader range of holdings.
Bull
- Merger of assets leads to further benefits that come with increased scale
- Strong relative and absolute performance over multiple time frames
- 4% of financial year-end NAV dividend policy can offer good income
Bear
- Consistently trades at a premium to NAV, which can impact returns if premium falls
- Growth bias may enhance volatility compared with other strategies in the Global Equity Income sector
- Dividend may experience some volatility in tandem with NAV