Liontrust's Geffen slides out of Sanlam Income Study's White List

Geffen's then-Neptune Income fund surged to lead the White List for the first half of 2019, having jumped 25 places, but saw its fortunes reverse through the course of the second half of 2019. It subsequently fell to 19th place, meaning it now sits near the top of the Grey List.

Replacing it in first place is Chris Murphy and James Balfour's offering. Despite not ranking number one under any of the metrics Sanlam uses to create the list, it is securely placed in the first and second quartile across the study's volatility, income and performance criteria, resulting in its first-place position, the study said.

Flows into equity funds slowed in January as coronavirus fears ramped up

Following Aviva in second and third place respectively are Santander Enhanced Income and Man GLG UK Income, the latter slipping one place due to having distributed slightly less income than the Santander fund in the period.

Santander had a second fund in the White List, despite its Equity Income offering falling five places, with Premier also having two mandates - Premier Monthly Income and Premier Income - in the list.

At the other end of the table, UBS UK Equity Income once again was placed bottom of the Black List, with last time's laggard Janus Henderson UK Equity Income moving up two places.

The fund splitting the two at the bottom was ASI UK Equity Income Unconstrained, run by Thomas Moore, one of the two managers charged with running the formerly Neil Woodford-run ASI Income Focus fund, due to re-open next month.

Link to reopen former Woodford fund

Elsewhere, Nick Kirrage's Schroder Income and Michael Stiasny's M&G Dividend funds also plummeted more than 15 places into the Black List.

Liontrust's Macro Equity Income fund, meanwhile, topped the Black List, with Santander also having a fund in the Black List as its Investment Income offering lagged.

Philip Smeaton, Chief Investment Officer at Sanlam Private Wealth, said: "After a year in which the performance of some equity income funds came under intense scrutiny, investors have grown increasingly cautious of unquoted companies that are both illiquid and generally do not have surplus cash to cover dividend payments, marking them out as particularly vulnerable in times of market stress.

"A further note of caution arises from the concentration of the UK equity market, coupled with the increase in the number companies that are unable to cover the cost of total dividend payments from profits, instead diving into capital reserves."

In order to determine the best and worst -performing funds, Sanlam UK analyses the performance of funds in the Investment Association UK Equity Income sector with a value of more than £20m against the absolute income generated over the past five calendar years, their capital growth for each of the past five 12-month periods and their volatility over the past five years.

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• Topics
• Investment
• Liontrust Income
• Sanlam
• UBS UK Equity Income
• Janus Henderson UK Equity Income
• ASI UK Equity Income Unconstrained
• Thomas Moore
• Woodford
• Robin Geffen
• Liontrust
• Sanlam White List
• Sanlam Black List
• Aviva Investors