Should you be so SDIP-id?Revisit the SDIP ETFThe Oak BlokeApr 14 READ IN APP Dear readerLast year in “SDIP-ping into yield paradise” I looked at the highest yielding ETF: SDIP. I concluded I shouldn’t touch it with a barge pole, due to a poor long-term performance.supportWhy revisit it today?Let’s introduce the ETF first. The idea is simple. Invest in a passive tracker of the 100 international ideas that yield the highest dividend. The highest dividends are found in Financials firms, Energy and Mining with Real Estate and Industrials comprising nearly 90% of the index.Eligible companies must have:No official announcement (e.g. RNS), at the quarterly rebalance dates, that dividend payments will be cancelled or significantly reduced in the future.Market Cap >$500 million.Average liquidity >$1 million over the last three months.Primary listing in a Developed Market or Emerging Market (but excludes India, China, and Argentina). (Includes Hong Kong)Dividend yield of >6% and <20%, if they are not current constituents, and at least 3% if they are current constituents.Traded on 90% of the eligible trading days for the previous 6 months.Free Float percentage of total shares outstanding of at least 10% or a minimum Free Float Market Capitalisation of $1 billion.No Closed End Fund, Business Development Companies (BDCs), Partnership or Trust.There is a quarterly rebalance back to 100 constituents at 1%, with the highest yield (that meet the above criteria)What caught my eyeOver its lifetime this ETF has performed poorly. Yet in 2025 it is performing well with a 9.1% ROE plus dividends. Meanwhile its P/E of 7.5X and P/B of 0.68X offers some decent value.It pays a monthly dividend worth about £0.7475p which I bought at a £5.92 buy price. (12.6%… it’s about 12.4% today)I covered the top and bottom 4 and sampled a couple in the middle. Here’s what I found.#1 Holding SESParis-based SES delivers an 8.9% yield at today’s prices and is a big beneficiary of European Defence spend increases.#2 Holding DNODNO just bought its Norwegian rival which has propelled its share price and earnings. Dividend is 12.1%#3 ProximusBelgium’s 5G telecom’s provider delivers a 9.2% yield and is growing revenue and earnings in Fibre, TV, Mobile and other services.#4 Ithaca EnergyThis is a UK company and the shares are up 50% YTD based on strong production at the top end of guidance (80.2kboe/d), and costs below guidance at $22/boe. An acquisition from ENI is being integrated into the business in 2025.The share delivers a 16.6% yieldThe above 4 are the biggest risers. They are the 4 who would be sold off and reduced back to 1% each at the next rebalance in 6 weeks time.Now let’s consider the bottom 4 performers. These are the ones (subject to the dividend being maintained) would be bought to bring them back to 1%.#97 ZIM down -24%ZIM operates in 90 countries and is an Israeli shipping firm. Its share price suffered earlier in 2025 due to being an unfortunate target of those ship-shooting folks, the Houthis. The 2025 USA campaign of shooting ship-shooters should improve matters. Besides last month Zim announced stunning results with profits 63% y-o-y, but of course this is cyclical, so it’s not out of the err Red Sea quite yet.But I’m optimistic and pleased that the rebalance would add 33% to this holding.#98 Ready Capital down -25%US mortgages and loans provider announced weak quarterly update in March caused a drop. The fourth quarter closes out a year of mixed results. The Small Business Lending segment performed well, with significant growth reflecting the benefits of past investments but its multi-family lending focused business faced challenges from higher rates, inflationary pressures, and lower rent growth.The dividend has been cut and it’s very likely we will wave goodbye to this holding in the end of May rebalance.#99 Kohl’s down -27%1,100 stores in 49 US states this is a dept store. Again a dividend cut means bye bye.#100 AVANCE GAS HOLDING LTD down -88% (yikes!)This is LPG fleet being liquidated (ironic huh) and can delivered capital returns and dividends far in excess of the share price so the -88% drop is quite misleading. It’s a decent gain and as they say themselves “well in the money”.ConclusionI’ve sampled through a number of the holdings, and also focused on the UK names, and as you can see some good names in there where Serica has its temporary Triton disruption, where Energean had its Italy assets deal with Carlyle fall through, M&G is perhaps the weakest given its outflows which hopefully cease before it (and the UK) bleed out with outflows. These six give a decent flavour of what you are buying into.I’m struck by the fact that there are ideas which I’d otherwise not be able to easily access. Companies like shipping co Zim, or Norwegian Oily DNO.I’m struck by a -0.84% capital loss in a pretty volatile quarter is not bad either.I get to a 12.64% average yield and a 8.7X p/e as the average of the 100 holdings.A ~1% yield per month is quite appealing as a place to hide, and where the index rebalances jettisoning those too weak to sufficiently pay dividends replacing them with the highest dividend out of the top #200 not in the index.Is it wise to buy into this as the world faces potential recession? Some ideas are cyclical but not all. Besides I’m not wholly convinced yet that the forecast doom and gloom will happen. I see countries accelerating trade deals on the back of Lib Day (not with the US), although maybe the UK and Japan may get a US free trade deal. US tax cuts and strong momentum could surprise us with the US. I see myself watching this until August, and then re-evaluating (prior to the August rebalance)I pounced on this given its 15% fall from the Lib Day sell off I’ve got a fair bit of margin of safety and where the capital returns are broadly zero and where I get over 12% yield to park some money.For non-UK folks there’s a US SDIV, a Euro UDIV (that ticker would be considered very rude in the UK!) listed in Germany, Italy and Switzerland.There is a 0.45% management charge plus trading costs (quarterly) which I expect aren’t awfully high, but I couldn’t find what they were (the TER).RegardsThe Oak BlokeDisclaimers:This is not advice – make your own investment decisions.Micro cap and Nano cap holdings might have a higher risk and higher volatility than companies that are traditionally defined as “blue chip”Thanks for reading The Oak Bloke’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Pledge your supportThe Oak Bloke’s Substack is free today. 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