F&C Investment Trust Plc FCIT

Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust was there when the idea of investment trusts was first mooted back in 1868. To have kept going more in less intact since then suggests at least the concept was robust enough. F&CIT now has just over £2bn spread widely around the world though the UK remains the biggest component of the portfolio.

Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust dividends:

They 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. Our net revenue return per share rose 4.2% in 2012 and exceeded the previous peak in 2008. Further cash realisations from our private equity portfolio and the repayment of our expensive debenture at the end of 2014 will strengthen our dividend paying ability. The Board therefore decided to increase your dividend for 2012 by 19.7% and move to quarterly dividend payments from February 2013. The Retail Price Index rose 3.2% in 2012.

You received an interim dividend of 4.00 pence in September 2012 and the first quarterly dividend of 2.00 pence on 1 February 2013. Subject to shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting you will receive a final dividend of 2.50 pence on 1 May 2013.

We plan a further increase in dividends for 2013. Three quarterly dividends of 2.10 pence each would be paid in August 2013, November 2013 and February 2014 and, subject to shareholder approval at the AGM, a final dividend of 2.70 pence in May 2014. The total dividend for 2013 would therefore be expected to be 9.00 pence, an increase of 5.9% on the 2012 total, and the forty-third consecutive annual increase.