Franklin Templeton’s Colin Morton will now focus on companies with rising dividends after the group has overhauled his UK Blue Chip fund.
Mr Morton, whose fund is top quartile in the past year, will see it change its name to Rising Dividends from January 30 and have an income focus and the ability to invest across the market cap spectrum.
The manager will aim to achieve a total return above that of the FTSE All-Share index in the medium to long term and target companies which have paid consistently rising dividends.
“The Franklin UK Rising Dividends Fund will seek to identify UK companies that have paid consistently rising dividends and are therefore likely to provide income for investors in the future,” Mr Morton said.
“Stock selection will be focused on companies that have increased dividend payments in eight out of the past 10 years, and that have not cut their dividend during this period.
“In addition, the fund will primarily invest in UK companies that have paid out less than 65 per cent of current earnings in dividends, in order to enable them to reinvest remaining earnings for future growth.”
Mr Morton will continue to run the group’s UK Equity Income fund, which is top quartile in the past year and second quartile in the past three- and five-year periods, according to data from FE Analytics.
