F&C Investment Trust to raise dividend for 43rd consecutive year

The world’s oldest investment trust is set to increase its dividend for the forty third consecutive year after a strong 2012.

Jeremy Tigue’s (pictured) Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust, which launched in 1868, saw its net asset value rise 13.3% in 2012 versus a 12.1% gain in its benchmark, while its share price rose by 11.1% to 320.5p.  

The performance enhanced the trust’s long term track record, in which it has returned an average of 9.5% per annum over the last 10 years versus an average 8.6% gain in the benchmark.

The trust rewarded investors with a dividend of 8.5p for 2012, an increase of 19.7%. It also plans to pay a dividend of 9p in 2013, which equates to 5.9% growth and continues the pattern of dividend hikes dating back to 1970.

‘We have a superb record of long-term dividend growth stretching back more than forty years. The dividend has more than doubled in each of the last four decades,’ the trust’s chairman Simon Fraser said in a statement.  

‘There are two distinct strands to our own strategy over the next five years. The first is to continue to increase our dividend faster than the rate of inflation and to achieve capital growth. The second is to make our portfolio even more global in order to exploit the investment opportunities that will arise in different markets at different times.’

At the start of February the trust was given a makeover, with two global portfolios and a new performance benchmark added in order to increase its diversity.

It believes this leaves it well positioned to tackle the continued market uncertainty. 'We are confident that our globally diversified portfolio is well placed to continue to deliver strong long-term investment performance,' Fraser said.

The trust also revealed it was adding a flat annual charge to savings plans to cover administration costs which hit £1.2 million in 2012.

Is said the charge will be introduced in April 2013 and will help cover audit site visits, monthly technical compliance monitoring, monthly service delivery meetings, quarterly financial crime prevention forums and the detailed review and investigation of breaches and complaints.