SMARTfunds

Thistledown Investment Management

Thistledown Investment Management Ltd was founded by Dominic Fisher to provide an investment management service that he would want for himself. He has been joined by Peter Wyatt, who shares a similar philosophy. The firm is independently owned investment management firm that uses a value investment approach that it believes has the best chance of producing above market returns over time. The firm’s principals, who have worked in financial markets for over 20 years, have a substantial personal investment in the funds managed by Thistledown, including the SMARTfund Thistledown Income Fund. As such they have a strong interest in common with investors in the SMARTfund Thistledown Income Fund.

Prior to Thistledown Dominic was a Director and portfolio manager at OLIM Ltd for UK charities, individuals and investment trusts with an income bias. The bulk of his career was spent with Mercury Asset Management managing charity portfolios. Dominic is Chairman of the investment sub-committee of  Armed Forces Common Investment Fund and a Director of Aberforth Geared Income Trust plc.

SMARTfund Thistledown Income Fund

SMARTfund Thistledown Income Fund’s objective is to provide income while achieving some capital growth over the medium to long term. The Manager intends to meet this objective by aiming to grow the Fund income in line or ahead of inflation over the long term and following a ‘value style’, as advised by the Fund’s Investment Adviser. This means that the Investment Adviser will identify investment opportunities that they believe are demonstrably under-valued by the market and a total return is achievable from that opportunity over the full investment cycle or longer of at least 2% over the total return that could be expected from UK equity investments over the same period (i.e. between 5 and 10 year horizons).  However, they believe in strong fundamentals for investment selection - low valuations and a robust financial position - and will look for evidence of this, in particular the absence of material debt.   

The Investment Adviser does not look to chase currently popular sectors or companies and so are less concerned with short term stock market fluctuations than fundamental changes in the position of the businesses they are monitoring and evaluating.

The Manager believes that investments identified in this way are likely to be re-valued by the market in due course and, in the meantime, will provide an income.

The Fund has a bias to UK equities. Despite the potentially high percentage invested in equity the principle is to balance this with a cautious portfolio approach aimed at avoiding a permanent loss of capital.  Accordingly, the Fund is unlikely to invest more than 4% in the equity of any single company at the acquisition of the holding, with the exception of collective investment schemes and exchange traded funds. The Fund will hold cash or fixed interest investments rather than acquire or hold investments that do not fulfil the investment selection requirements.  The Fund will also hold overseas equities that meet these criteria as well as collective investment schemes or exchange traded funds.  

Given this investment approach the Fund, particularly if it holds cash in a rising market, is likely to produce returns that are significantly different to the UK equity indices.  However, the Manager is aiming to grow the income of the Fund in-line with or ahead of inflation over time.  

The fund should be considered high risk given the exposure to equities.

Charges:

Initial charge 0.0%

Annual Management Charge 1.0%

TER (before any adviser charges are included) is expected to be approximately 1.3%. 

Charges are first deducted from any available gross income but any balance will be deducted from capital.

Minimum investments:

• £3,000
• £500 thereafter
• £250 regular
• £1,000 minimum withdrawal

For more information about the investment adviser visit:

www.thisim.com or email funds@thisim.com