Lowland, managed by James Henderson (pictured), has published its results for the year that ended on 30 September 2014. Over this period the fund generated a total return on net assets of 5.7% – a little bit below the return on the FTSE All-Share Index of 6.1%. The dividend was increased by 8.8% to 37p, paid out of earnings totalling 39.4p. The return to shareholders was 4.9%.
The reason for the underperformance during the year was the fund’s exposure to smaller companies and industrial stocks as worries grew about the strength of the global economy, says the Chairman. He goes on to say however that their underlying confidence in the inherent strengths of these companies has persuaded them to retain a reasonable level of gearing – 13.3% at the year end
LWI : Lowland held back by industrial exposure