Data as at: 27/03/2024

Gearing

Gearing policy

The Company is able to gear the portfolio and the Board takes the view that long term returns for Shareholders can be enhanced by the use of gearing in a carefully considered and monitored way.

Borrowing limits

It is the current intention of the Board that, in normal market conditions, the Portfolio Manager will maintain net gearing in the range of 0% to 20%. The Company remained within these levels throughout the reporting year. The maximum level of gross gearing is 40%.

Ways in which investment companies can magnify income and capital returns, but which can also magnify losses.

At its simplest, gearing means borrowing money to buy more assets in the hope the company makes enough profit to pay back the debt and interest and leave something extra for shareholders.

Image
how gearing works table

However, if the investment portfolio doesn’t perform well, gearing can increase losses. The more an investment company gears, the higher the risk.

Investment companies can usually borrow at lower rates of interest than you’d get as an individual. They also have flexible ways to borrow – for example they might get an ordinary bank loan or, for split capital investment companies, issue different classes of share.

Not all investment companies use gearing, and most use relatively low levels of gearing.

An indication of the maximum and minimum levels that the company would expect to be geared in normal market conditions.

Morningstar logo Data provided by Morningstar.

FE fundinfo logo Company documents provided by FE fundinfo.