Artemis Income Fund

The Artemis Income Fund's aim is simple – to grow income and capital over five years. The fund mainly invests in companies listed in the UK, but it has the flexibility to invest overseas when attractive opportunities arise.

The managers look for stable, well-established businesses with the financial strength to pay a share of their after-tax earnings to shareholders as dividends. It should be remembered, however, that the value of the fund’s holdings and the income from them may fall as well as rise with movements in stockmarkets, currencies and interest rates.

• Regular income: the managers look for companies with the ability to generate strong profits that allow them to pay dividends.
• Experienced team: managers Adrian Frost, Nick Shenton and Andy Marsh have many years’ experience of managing income funds.
• Diversified: the managers invest in a portfolio of typically around 45 to 65 stocks. They seek to avoid too much exposure to any one industry or company. The size of each holding reflects the managers’ level of expected return from a company share and their confidence in the company.
• An eye on liquidity: the managers monitor the ability to buy and sell company shares held within the fund with the aim of mitigating liquidity risk. Liquidity risk occurs when an investment cannot be traded quickly enough without impacting the price.
• ESG integration: the fund’s approach to environmental, social and governance factors is founded on a belief that good or improving environmental and social credentials can lead to improved financial outcomes (ie more sustainable long-term cashflows), a lower cost of capital and better long-term share-price performance.

The fund’s managers believe that good or improving ESG characteristics can lead to a better financial outcome, a lower cost of capital and long-term value creation.

The fund’s core ESG principles

• As long-term stewards of client capital with a current average holding period of more than six years, the fund’s managers are more likely to influence and shape company policy and capital allocation
• Avoids certain markets, and will not knowingly invest in companies that produce cluster munitions or anti-personnel mines
• The managers have sold holdings where they regard the ESG issues as insurmountable, not because of a reluctance to engage for change but because the business operations do not allow for meaningful change
• Rated the seventh most sustainable fund of the 80 in the IA UK Equity Income sector, according to Morningstar*

Engagement and voting

• The managers favour engagement with management over divestment, but if attempts to influence companies are unsuccessful, they will sell holdings
• The managers vote to encourage all investee companies towards best practice
• Policy is to vote in almost all votable meetings: see our latest vote reports