Henderson International Income’s net asset value returned 9.6% over the six months to the end of February 2015 while the MSCI World (ex UK) Index returned 10.7%. The company’s share price did much better however, returning 18.7%. They have declared two dividends of 1.1p each for the period and say they aim to maintain the same level of dividend throughout the remaining six months of this financial year (which would imply a 3.5% increase in the full year dividend year on year).
Ben Lofthouse’s manager’s report says some of the strongest dividend growth in the portfolio has come from their holdings in technology companies – they mention Taiwan Semiconductor, Seagate Technology and Microsoft in this regard. On the downside, integrated oil producer ENI announced that it would be reducing its dividend by almost 30% for 2015 in response to falling oil prices.
Some of their European holdings performed well after the introduction of QE in Europe – they highlight Deutsche Böerse, logistics operator Deutsche Post and French telecoms company Orange. easier monetary policy in China also helped holdings in Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust and Bank of China.
On the downside Las Vegas Sands and SJM Holdings were hurt by curbs to gambling in Macao and, as well as ENI mentioned above, RWE and Total suffered amid falling energy prices.
HINT : Henderson International Income re-rated on demand for income