Investors like trusts paying dividends  

While paying from capital has some critics, the market’s judgement overall is clear. 

Consider JPMorgan Global Growth & Income (JGGI), for example. At c. £3bn in market cap, JGGI is one of the largest trusts in the sector, and sits on the mid-cap FTSE 250, just below the threshold for FTSE 100 inclusion. While most of the AIC Global Equity Income sector is trading on a wide discount, JGGI has been on or around a premium for most of the past five years.

Performance has been really good, the trust being ahead of all other vehicles in the Global or Global Equity Income sectors over five years, as well as ahead of global equity indices. The dividend policy is to pay 4 per cent of NAV each year, from capital wherever necessary. This means the managers are completely free from the need to worry about picking income stocks and they can just invest where they think the best growth is.

Paying a dividend from capital therefore allows income investors to invest in high growth areas while still earning a substantial yield, and I think it is this combination of yield and the strong performance from investing in global growth equities, that has led to the premium rating.

Could biotech be an income and growth opportunity? 

Another good example of growth combined with income is International Biotechnology Trust (IBT). As the name suggests, it invests in companies developing new medicines, from those in clinical trials to those that are already generating sales and profits. These companies don’t pay dividends themselves, but IBT has a similar policy to JGGI, paying 4 per cent of NAV out each year in a dividend.

Biotechnology looks pretty cheap by historical standards, and has been out of favour as the market has adjusted to high interest rates. This means that, unlike for JGGI, the discount on the shares is considerable at the time of writing, around 12 per cent. This does show that an enhanced yield on its own is not enough to assure a narrow discount.

I think biotech could be an area to benefit if the market starts to broaden out from large-cap tech, which has taken so much investor attention and cashflow in recent years, while large-cap pharma companies are desperate to replace their expiring patents, which should see takeovers of the earlier-stage companies like those in IBT’s portfolio.