(Alliance News) - Aberdeen Standard Equity Income Trust said on Friday it has ended its financial year among the top quartile of investment trusts in its UK equity income peer group.
At September 30, the investment trust posted a net asset value per share of 380.8 pence, up 32% from 288.0p the previous year.
The firm's shares were up 1.1% to 356.00p each in London on Friday afternoon.
Aberdeen Standard had bought back 294,486 shares, representing 0.6% of the issued share capital during the year and said the buy backs had increased the NAV per share by 0.18p.
For the year ended September 30, the share price total return came in at 47.1%, beating the FTSE All-Share Index's total return of 27.9%. Aberdeen Standard said this put it among the top quartile of investment trusts in the UK Equity Income peer group for the financial year.
Earnings per share for the year were 20.06p, an increase of 29% from the previous year. Aberdeen Standard said that this was an "encouraging increase" but that it still left the company below pre-pandemic levels.
Aberdeen Standard announced a fourth interim dividend of 5.6p per share. This takes the total dividend for the year to 21.2p per share, a 2.9% increase on the dividend declared for the 2020 financial year and the 21st consecutive annual dividend increase paid by the company.
By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com
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