Royal London UK Equity Income keeps place in Super 60 after formal review

Fund retained on interactive investor's rated list of investments.

Royal London UK Equity Income has retained its place on interactive investor’sSuper 60 rated list following a formal review due to the planned retirement of lead manager Martin Cholwill later this year.

The fund, listed as a ‘Core’ option within the UK equities income category in the Super 60 list, was placed under formal review in February. Richard Marwood, who has been deputy manager of the fund since 2016, has since been promoted to co-fund manager until Cholwill retires, and then will become lead manager of the fund.

The fund’s performance and risk profile were closely scrutinised during the formal review period. ii found that the fund demonstrated consistency both over the short and long term, handover and ranks highly among the sector and the peer group. The fund has outperformed its UK Equity Income peer group by 2.1% annualised return over five years.

Dzmitry Lipski, Head of Funds Research, interactive investor, says: “We met with the managers of the strategy and discussed in detail all aspects around the handover of management responsibilities.

“We view the fact that there will be no changes to the existing philosophy and process as a positive. In addition, the team structure and resource were also discussed. We also conducted quantitative assessment of the fund and concluded that the fund continues to deliver against its objectives and the peer group. Moreover, when we analysed the wider sector we did not find a more compelling alternative.”

The decision was made in line with our Super 60 methodology - which is monitored continuously for events that include, but are not limited to, extended periods of underperformance and fund manager moves. The interactive investor team conducted a formal in-depth review of the investment process, the shape and quality of the portfolio positioning as well as sustainability of the current yield.