Henderson High Income Trust (HHI) Overview

What is the Henderson High Income Trust?

Managed by Janus Henderson, with David Smith as fund manager and Andrew Jones as portfolio manager. Smith is supported by Janus Henderson’s Global Equity Income Team, and the bond part of the portfolio is run by the Global Bonds team. HHI’s main aim is a high income: it invests in a prudently diversified The process of spreading your investment portfolio across different asset classes, such as partially in shares and partially in bonds, in order to reduce risk.mix of well-known and smaller companies to give investors a high dividend income stream, while keeping the prospect of capital growth.

What makes it unusual is that it holds both sharesA unit of ownership in a company. Companies divide their ownership into shares and investors can purchase these to become owners of a tiny part of it. They're also called 'stocks' or 'equities'. and bondsA type of asset that represents a loan, usually issued by a government, company or agency that wants to raise money to fund its operations. in one Trust. The trust typically holds roughly 80% UK equities and 20% bonds, spread across different company sizes, bond grades and types. Janus Henderson argues that bond interest tends to hold up better than dividends A payment made by a company to its shareholders, typically representing a distribution of the company's profits.when the economy is under stress, which gives the Trust a second source of income.

Why is it rated by Boring Money?

How has HHI performed?

All data herein is sourced from FE fundinfo and is correct as at the end of October 2026. Boring Money is not responsible for any data discrepancies.

Why look at it now?

For income seekers, the headline is the yieldThe return or profit on an investment, usually expressed as a percentage of the total price per year. For example, if the yield on a bond was 5%, this means an investor with £100 in that bond would get £5 in returns per year. . On 19 October 2026 the Trust yielded 5.44%, with shares at 205.00p against an estimated NAV of 217.32p, a discount of 5.67%. The dividend keeps edging up. The dividend paid on 30 October 2026 is 2.800p per share, up from 2.775p in each of the previous four quarters. The manager is also positive on the home market. In his August commentary, he said UK equities look attractive compared with their own history and with overseas markets. He keeps a balance between more resilient businesses and cyclical companies he believes are cheap.

What is the risk rating for HHI?

We rank this at 5/5 on our chilli scale for riskFor a guide on how spicy any trust is, we use FE fundinfo’s Risk Score and sort the trusts into one of our 5 chilli bands. Cash would be no chilli. A non-volatile smooth trust would be 1 or 2. The FTSE 100 would clock in as 4 chillies. Anything very volatile and spicy is a 5..

HHI is mostly invested in UK shares, so it will rise and fall with the stock market. BondsA type of asset that represents a loan, usually issued by a government, company or agency that wants to raise money to fund its operations. may soften some of that, but it brings its own risks. If a bond issuer can’t pay interest or repay the loan, or the market fears it might, the bond’s value will fall. The Trust also borrows to invest (gearingThe act of borrowing money to fund a company's operations. It can be expressed as a ratio, where the cost of the borrowed amount is compared to the overall value of the company - this is called the gearing or leverage ratio. ). Its net gearing was 19% at the end of August 2026. Borrowing can magnify gains and losses.

There are two more points income investors should know. Some administrative costs are taken from capital, which lets the Trust pay more income but may restrict or even reduce capital growth over time. Because the Trust leans towards income-paying companies, it may significantly underperform or outperform the wider market. It is best held for the long term as part of a diversified portfolio.

What regions does HHI invest in?

Geography: United Kingdom 86.3% | United States 4.7% | France 3.1% | Netherlands 1.5% | Spain 1.2% | Sweden 1.1% | Denmark 0.8% | Multinational 0.8% | Slovenia 0.2% | Italy 0.2%

What sectors does HHI invest in?

The largest sector is financials, followed by consumer staples and then bonds. Financials make up 29.0%, consumer staples 16.4%, fixed interest 9.3%, industrials 7.9%, basic materials 6.9% and energy 6.8%, with the rest spread across consumer discretionary, utilities, healthcare, real estate, technology and telecoms.

What are the top holdings?

HHI’s top holdings are well-known FTSE 100 names, mostly banks, oil companies, tobacco and miners. Unlike many Trusts, it isn’t dominated by a few stocks. Its biggest holding, HSBC, is under 5%, and the top 10 together make up about 32% of the portfolio. In total, the Trust holds 115 investments.

Source: Henderson High Income Trust as at 30/09/2026

What are the key facts? 

Source: Henderson High Income Trust as at 30/09/2026