TwentyFour Income (TFIF)

TwentyFour Income Fund (LON:TFIF) aims to generate a high annual income for investors of at least 6p on the issue price of 100p, with a total return of 6% to 9% p.a., by investing in the higher-yielding, less liquid parts of the pan-European asset-backed security (ABS) market.

It pays a quarterly dividend, distributing all income each year, and has met its dividend and total-return targets each year since launch in 2013. In fact, the board is committed to holding a continuation vote if TFIF fails to hit its dividend target in any financial year. The current yield is 5.9%.

The investment universe includes mortgage-backed securities, both residential and commercial, collateralised loan obligations and assets backed by consumer and student debt. All are floating rate, meaning they carry minimal interest-rate risk. Major risks are credit risk, regulatory risk and stock-specific risk. We discuss the securitisation structure in the Portfolio section.

TFIF is run by a specialist team at TwentyFour Asset Management. They use their expertise to invest in this relatively esoteric, illiquid asset class and a number of the team members have experience as originators of ABS as well as buyers. This, as well as the closed-ended structure, allows them to take advantage of the inefficiencies in the market and the smaller unrated deals which can fly under the radar of larger investors.

The trust has a five-year average premium of 2.7%. This has allowed the board to grow the trust by issuing shares although, as we discuss in the Discount section, this only happens when the managers believe this will not dilute the quality of the portfolio.