(Alliance News) - Scottish American Investment Co PLC on Friday said its performance in 2020 was "remarkably resilient" with especially strong returns from its equity portfolio.
The Edinburgh headquartered investment trust reported a net asset value total return of 15%, exceeding the 13% rise from "global equities" during the period. Net asset value per share increased by 10% to 449.7 pence at at December 31 from 407.1p the year before.
In their investment managers' report, James Dow and Toby Ross of Baillie Gifford & Co, said: "The company's NAV total return (debenture at fair value) grew by 14.5%, driven primarily by strong returns from the equity portfolio. Income was also resilient."
As the equity portfolio represents approximately 93% of Scottish American Investment's net assets, the equity portfolio is most influential on the firm's returns in a year and in 2020 delivered a 16% total return compared to the 13% return from global equity markets.
Chair Peter Moon said: "Because of Baillie Gifford's focus on dependable, growing streams of income the operational performance of [Scottish American Investment's] holdings has been remarkably resilient."
With a final dividend of 3.00 pence per share, the company's total payout for 2020 increased to 12.00 pence per share from 11.875p a share in 2019. This means Scottish American Investment has raised its dividend for 41 consecutive years, it noted.
Moon said: "As a board, we remain of the view that a long-term approach based on investing globally for sustainable growth is the best route to achieving [Scottish American Investment's] aim of growing the dividend ahead of inflation over time. We have great confidence in the managers' approach, and this confidence has been strengthened by the experiences of the past year."
Shares in Scottish American Investment were down 1.3% at 466.77p in London on Friday morning.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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