AllianzGI's Macdonald boosts overseas weighting to diversify income on Brunner trust

UK exposure reduced

Allianz Global Investors' Lucy Macdonald has increased the £367m Brunner investment trust's overseas exposure since taking over as lead manager, in a bid to diversify away its "dependency" on the UK market and maintain its 44-year record of annual dividend increases.

Macdonald (pictured) was previously co-manager of the trust since 2005, focusing on the overseas portion of the portfolio, while former colleague Jeremy Thomas managed its UK exposure. However, following Thomas' departure in June, Macdonald has been made lead manager and has boosted the trust's weighting in areas outside the UK. Just 12 months ago, 40% of the trust was in UK stocks, but this has been reduced to 32% as at October 2016. Exposure to North America and Pacific (ex Japan) has increased by around 2% during the period, while the European weighting (ex UK) is up by almost 5%. ...