BlackRock's Gaskell on protecting dividends in a European recession

Only one holding in the BlackRock Continental European Income fund has cut its dividend in the three years since the fund launched, the managers said, as the environment for European dividends looks increasingly stable.

Alice Gaskell, who co-manages the £311m fund with Andreas Zoellinger, said the fact the fund launched against the backdrop of a European recession presented a challenge for the management team. She told delegates at the Investment Week Senate: “We have only had one dividend cut in the strategy since we launched, and that was a small Norwegian construction company. We sold it.” However, she acknowledged the fund did lose some relative performance after the US Federal Reserve announced tapering in 2013: “The way I think about that was we still made 10% in six months, in a low-risk strat...