Highlights
- Founded in 1868 – the first ever investment trust
- A diversified portfolio provides exposure to most of the world's stock markets
- Invests in more than 490 listed companies in 29 countries
Fund manager commentary
April was another good month for markets. The UK has now risen for eleven consecutive months, the Japanese market eight and the US six. This seems to be almost entirely due to the actions of central banks as economic growth remains subdued by past standards and companies have to work hard to increase profits.
We became more cautious in January and reduced our gearing and if markets carry on rising we will reduce gearing again.
As a result of strong markets we are seeing an acceleration in cash distributions from our maturing private equity funds, principally from sales of companies that have gone public in recent years. We expect this positive trend to continue in the second quarter.
We are now paying dividends quarterly; the final dividend for 2012 of 2.50 pence was paid on 1 May and the next dividend will be paid on 1 August. We plan to increase the total dividend for 2013 by 5.9% to 9.00 pence. This should be the forty third consecutive annual increase.
As at 30 April 2013
