(Alliance News) - Mercantile Investment Trust PLC on Friday said it grew its returns in the 12 months ended January 31, despite it being a "testing year".
The London-based investment company focused on medium and smaller sized companies said its net asset value at January 31 rose 1.1% to 238.6 pence from 236.1p a year earlier.
The company's NAV total return with debt at fair value was 5.4% for financial 2024, compared to negative 8.5% a year prior, outperforming its benchmark of 1.8%. This was driven by stock selection, the investment firm explained.
Mercantile declared a fourth quarterly interim dividend of 3.30p per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 7.65p per share, an increase of 7.0% to 7.15p from a year ago.
"Despite [a] generally unsupportive environment, most of the company's portfolio holdings continued to do well at an operational level, and I am pleased to report a positive performance from the company over the year under review, on both an absolute and relative basis," said Chair Angus Gordon Lennox.
"Existing portfolio holdings have been performing well despite the challenging conditions of the past year, and should do even better as and when the economy strengthens."
Shares in Mercantile Investment were trading 1.8% higher at 226.50 pence each in London on Friday morning.
By Sabrina Penty, Alliance News reporter
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Mercantile Investment Trust PLC (MRC)