LONDON (Alliance News) - Keystone Investment Trust PLC on Monday said its total return to shareholders was 7.3% in the financial year ended September 30 based on the share price with dividends reinvested.
The investment trust said its benchmark, the FTSE All-Share Index, total return was down 2.3% in that time.
The total return on underlying net asset value per share was 6.7% with debt at par value and 6.4% with debt at market value.
"Volatility in UK markets and world economies has provided a challenging backdrop over the past year. However, the company's performance, as illustrated earlier in my statement, demonstrates the ability of [portfolio manager] Mark Barnett and his team to deliver in these conditions. The board remains highly confident that Mr Barnett and his team's investment approach will continue to generate worthwhile returns and enable the company to fulfil its investment objective to provide shareholders with long-term growth of capital," Chairman Beatrice Hollond said in a statement.
"Although we understand income is important to shareholders we do not anticipate the recent level of special dividends is likely to continue and therefore income received is likely to return to more normal levels in coming years," Hollond added.
Keystone on Monday declared a second interim dividend of 33 pence per share, for a full-year dividend of 51p. It also declared a special dividend of 12.3p.
The trust is managed by Invesco Asset Management Ltd.
Shares in the trust were up 0.7% at 1,813.24 pence on Monday.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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