Shareholders in the Standard Life European Private Equity Trust have approved plans to increase the dividend, simplify the fee structure and increase the flexibility of the investment strategy to enhance its overall exposure to private equity.
Reflecting the strategic changes, the trust is removing the reference to “European”, simplifying its name to the Standard Life Private Equity Trust (SLPE.L).
The evolution of the strategy will enable the manager to invest in the leading private equity buyout funds regardless of size and with additional geographic freedom.
Roger Pim, deputy head of SL Capital Partners, says: “We believe that the changes to the strategy, the enhanced dividend and simplified management fee will be beneficial to shareholder returns. The objective of the strategic changes is to broaden the private equity opportunity without diluting the strategy and focus which has delivered strong performance for investors over many years. Shareholders should not expect a radical shift on geographic exposures. We are therefore confident that the trust is well positioned to take advantage of significant market opportunities over the long-term.”
The GBP533 million private equity investment trust will more than double its annual dividend for 2017 to 12.0p per share, up from 5.4p. The yield represents around 4 per cent with the board committing to maintain the real value of the dividend, growing it at least in line with inflation, in the absence of unforeseen circumstances.
Consistent with the aim of providing shareholders with a simple, low cost means of accessing attractive investments in private companies, the trust’s performance fee has been removed and the fee structure simplified to 0.95 per cent of net assets. The total expenses ratio will be around 1.10 per cent.
The trust has a 12-month total return of 24.8 per cent to 30 September 2016 and share price growth of 27.9 per cent.
