Standard Life UK Smaller Companies - Focus on quality, growth and momentum

Standard Life UK Smaller Companies (SLS) has a long-term record of significant outperformance versus its benchmark. Manager Harry Nimmo says that his disciplined investment process, which focuses on quality, growth and momentum, also provides an element of resilience in periods of market weakness. He is encouraged by the trust’s growing level of income, which is allowing SLS to employ a progressive dividend policy, and argues that over the long term, investors have been well served by an allocation to smaller UK companies as they have outperformed the broader UK market. The trust’s board actively employs a discount control mechanism, and has recently been repurchasing shares as SLS’s discount has bumped up against its 8% target maximum.