The Invesco Perpetual High Income Fund is one of the largest and most popular unit trust (mutual fund) in the U.K. The fund aims to achieve high level of income in addition to capital growth. This fund invests mostly in UK-based companies with the rest invested globally.

At the end of November, 2009 it has total assets of £8.9B or $14.3B.  From its launch date in 1988 this fund continues to be popular with investors for consistent performance. Due to the presence of large number of defensive companies in the fund, the performance has slightly declined recently. But over the 5 and 10 year periods the returns easily beat others in the same fund category.

The Top 10 Holdings of the Invesco Perpetual High Income Fund as of November, 2009 are:

GlaxosmithKline (GSK)
Current Dividend Yield:4.62%

Astrazeneca (AZN)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.52%

BG Group (OTC: BRGYY)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.02%

Vodafone Group (VOD)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.89%

Reynolds American Inc (RAI)
Current Dividend Yield: 6.69%

British American Tobacco (BTI)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.85%

Tesco (OTC: TSCDY)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

National Grid (NGG)
Current Dividend Yield: 4.40%

BT Group (BT)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.46%

Imperial Tobacco Group (OTC: ITYBY)
Current Dividend Yield: 5.55%

Three of the above picks are tobacco stocks. It is interesting to note that this fund does not have any financials in the top 10 holdings. In fact financials account for less than 10% of the total portfolio.