Mott favours defensive high yields

PSigma's Bill Mott has positioned his £452m Income fund with a bias towards defensive high yield sectors, which he says have never offered such compelling value.

The fund’s largest sector overweight is in utilities at 12.2%, versus 3.9% in the benchmark, with pharma, tobacco, telecoms and food retailers also among the fund’s heaviest sector exposures. These positions reflect Mott’s view global growth is likely to be subdued for the foreseeable future. Names the manager holds include Deutsche Telecom, France Telecom, and KPN, tobacco firms Altria and Reynolds American, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis and Bayer in the pharma sector, and E.ON and GDF Suez in utilities. “Given the macro backdrop, it is our view that defensive high yield equities offer ...