Invesco Diversified Dividend Team Update

Meggan Walsh (00:04):

After 34 years in the industry including 30 years at Invesco and 18 years as Head of the Dividend Value Strategies, I recently announced my intent to retire from the industry and the firm. It's been an honor and a privilege to be given the opportunity to grow the franchise by Invesco, and I'm so very proud of my team's accomplishments. 

Meggan Walsh (00:25):

I'm happy to introduce Pete Santoro as the new Head of the Dividend Value Team and the Lead Manager of the Invesco Diversified Dividend Fund. Given the size and importance of the franchise, we included a diverse group of candidates, both internally and externally, in our search for my successor to ensure that we had the best slate of individuals to fill this role. We ultimately decided on Pete because of his cultural fit with Invesco, his established leadership experience, his performance track record, and because we believe he has a strong passion for active investing. Pete's investment philosophy is also very much in alignment with the philosophy I built on the Diversified Dividend Value Team over the years. Pete, we're very excited to have you on board.

Pete Santoro (01:10):

Thanks, Meggan. I'm very excited to be here, and I know I have big shoes to fill for sure. As Meggan mentioned, I do identify strongly with the philosophy and process that Meggan's team put in place and do have a passion for dividend investing. I look forward to working with the Dividend Value Team, the broader Value Equity Team at Invesco, as well as all the other teams, and I'm confident that I can help bring positive results. I look forward to maintaining the success of the team by employing the same basic tenets that have been in place for over 18 years.

Pete Santoro (01:39):

This will be a total return strategy that focuses on capital appreciation, current income and capital protection in times of stress for the Diversified Dividend Fund. The fund will be designed to still be a foundation of investor's portfolio, and our goal will be to beat the Russell 1000 value benchmark and peers with less risk over a full market cycle. For the core tenets of the process will remain in place, we're always going to look for ways to possibly enhance our consumer investor outcomes. To that end, we will likely make four small minor tweaks to the portfolio process.

Pete Santoro (02:13):

First, we will add an edit emphasis on free cash flow to deal with the balance sheet stress. Second, we will be having more portfolio diversification when it comes to sectors. Although we will look closer to the sector alignments to the Russell 1000 value benchmark, we'll have plenty of opportunity to take industry and stock [inaudible 00:02:30]. Third, we'll bring international weight to under 10% over time, and fourth, our cash levels will remain low as we look to be fully invested.

Pete Santoro (02:39):

I would also like to emphasize that the rest of the team will be in place which I'm super excited about. I've been really impressed with the diversity of experience and the fact that the team is invested through multiple investment cycles. In the next coming months I'll be working with Meggan as she transitions her coverage of financials and industrials from a sector standpoint, as well as other business responsibilities. Again, I'm really excited to be here and I can't wait to get going and working with the broader Invesco team. Thank you.