Invesco Select has relaunched under a new name and share price ticker of Invesco Global Equity Income Trust (IGET ) following shareholder approval of its reconstruction last month. 

The consolidation of Invesco Select’s four share classes into one creates a £200m quality growth portfolio under the management of Stephen Anness, Invesco head of global equities.

The company hopes that the simpler structure and the adoption of a 4% dividend, a 10% discount control policy and a regular continuation vote starting in 2026 will make the listed fund easier to market to investors.

Over five years, the trust is the second-best performer in the six-strong Global Equity Income sector with a total return on net assets of 85%. This beats the peer group average of 69% and the MSCI All Country World index return of 71%.

It lies behind the £2.6bn JPMorgan Global Growth & Income (JGGI ) which has generated an underlying 111% over the same period. However, with its shares on a 15.6% discount compared to JGGI’s small premium of 0.7%, IGET offers a better re-rating potential than its big rival.

Anness believes his trust offers a similar ‘all-weather’ appeal having performed well in the very different market conditions of 2021, 2022 and 2023.

The manager, whose team of 10 looks after £14.3bn worldwide, including £9.8bn in global equity income funds, allocates around half of the portfolio to North America, with a quarter in Europe and 20.5% in UK-listed companies.

Around 70% of assets are in ‘dividend compounders’ such as US tech companies Texas Instruments and Broadcom (AVGO.O) which have a good history of growing dividends. However, the trust also holds low yielders with clear strategies for income growth, such as Nvidia (NVDA.O) which it bought into in 2022, as well as dividend recovery stocks such as Rolls-Royce (RR), which is expected to resume payments after a rebound last year. 

With 90% ‘active share’ demonstrating divergence from the index benchmark, the manager is prepared to look ‘off piste’ for opportunities, making 3i Group (III ), the Action-discount-retailer-powered private equity fund, his biggest position at 6.9%.

Anness says the portfolio is weighted to mid-cap stocks although he points out that on a global stage these include companies with market valuations of up to $30bn (£23.6bn).

Anness said: ‘Through our proven process we will continue to identify companies that can deliver solid cashflows at attractive valuations, and with the quality to weather volatility, providing investors with greater confidence in all market conditions.’