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What’s changing?

Changes are being made to how the Fund is approaching distributions. In short, the intention is to:

  • pay ordinary distributions every six months. This financial year, the distribution will be set at 8 cents per unit – paid in two 4-cent semi-annual distributions in January 2022 and July 2022, subject to change. In future, they will be set at a level that targets an annual distribution yield of approximately 4%
  • pay special distributions in years where the Fund’s taxable income is significantly in excess of the ordinary distributions
  • change the Fund’s Distribution Reinvestment Plan (DRP) so that the price for the DRP can be set with reference to the ASX-traded price of FOR.

Read the ASX announcement below for more details.

ASX ANNOUNCEMENT
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FOR webinar

At this end-of-year webinar, Chief Investment Officer Steve Johnson and senior analysts Alex Shevelev and Gaston Amoros discussed:

  • FOR performance, strategy and what’s new
  • proposed adjustments to the Fund’s distributions policy
  • what investors need to know about the DRP.

They also answered investor questions – tune in for more.

Watch now

Opting into the DRP

If you would like to opt into the DRP, visit Link Market Services online and then:                   

1. Select ‘Payments & Tax > Reinvestment Plans’
2. Under FOR, select ‘edit instructions’ – here you can confirm your participation in the plan.

You can also contact Link on +61 1300 554 474 for support.   

Frequently asked questions

There will be a Q&A session at the end of the webinar where you can ask questions, but we’ve answered a few ahead of time. If you have any more questions, please get in touch with our team.

Q: Why are these changes taking place?

Our primary objective over the past 18 months has been to re-establish the Fund’s long-term outperformance. And so far, we have so far continued last year’s strong performance into the 2022 financial year. The Fund has also outperformed the All Ordinaries Accumulation Index by 4% per annum since inception 12 years ago (returns net of all manager fees, listing costs and operating expenses). We believe that, along with continued outperformance, a reliable distribution yield can improve the attractiveness of the Fund for long-term investors.

Q: What was the previous distributions policy?

As a trust, the previous policy of the Fund was to pay 100% of the Fund’s taxable income every year in distributions. Due to the volatile nature of the Fund’s returns, that led to distributions as low as $0.01 per unit in 2020 and as high as $0.21 per unit in the 2018 financial year. The new policy is designed with the aim to smooth the distribution payments. Please note that the long-term returns from the Fund are still entirely dependent on the performance of the underlying portfolio of investments.

Q: What are the tax considerations of these changes?

Investors’ taxable income from the Fund is unchanged by the distributions policy. They will be taxed on all of the taxable income of the Fund, regardless of how much is distributed in cash. Where the taxable income is less than the cash distributions, the excess will be treated as a capital return, reducing investors’ cost base. Where the taxable income is greater than these distributions, investors will receive an increase in the cost base of their investment. These details will be provided in investors’ annual tax statements. Please seek advice from relevant financial, stockbroking, taxation, legal or other professionals before acting on any information.

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

FOR Distribution Reinvestment Policy (DRP) booklet
DOWNLOAD

FOR Distribution Reinvestment Policy (DRP) booklet ASX announcement
ACCESS HERE