Overview
Merchants Trust aims to provide its shareholders with an above-average level of income which increases over time through a policy of investing mainly in higher yielding UK FTSE 100 companies. Merchants Trust says by investing in companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, investors gain exposure to business activities across the globe whilst benefitting from the UK’s leading corporate governance standards and that every stock the Trust invests in undergoes rigorous analysis.
Fundamentals
Price
Research History
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10 Aug 2020 10 min read
QuotedData’s Investment Companies Roundup – August 2020
Investment Companies Roundup Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford and Aberdeen Standard Investments Table of contents New research Performance data Discounts and premiums Money in and out Major news stories Income Events Guide Appendix – Performance by sector full list New research Here is a list of research we published over July: Seneca Global Income & Growth – […]
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07 May 2020 6 min read
QuotedData’s Economic Roundup – May 2020
Economic & Political Roundup Kindly sponsored by Allianz A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell […]
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07 Oct 2019 8 min read
QuotedData’s economic roundup – October 2019
Economic & Political Roundup Kindly sponsored by Polar Capital and Allianz A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you […]
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05 Apr 2019 6 min read
QuotedData’s economic roundup – April 2019
Kindly sponsored by Polar Capital Economic & Political Roundup A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy […]
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18 Jan 2019 1 min read
QuotedData’s investment companies roundup – January 2019
QuotedData’s investment companies roundup – January 2019 is our latest roundup of news; price, NAV and discount movements; flows in and out of the sector and report on full year dividends announced over the month of December 2018. Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford. Extract from money raised and returned in December The only new issue […]
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12 Oct 2018 2 min read
QuotedData’s Economic round up – October 2018
QuotedData’s Economic round up – October 2018 is a collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or […]
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11 May 2018 1 min read
QuotedData’s investment companies roundup – May 2018
QuotedData investment companies roundup – May 2018 – is our latest roundup of news; price, NAV and discount movements; flows in and out of the sector and report on full year dividends announced over the month of April 2018. Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford. India Capital Growth has experience a rebound in performance in the past month, as […]
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10 Nov 2017 2 min read
QuotedData investment companies roundup – November 2017
QuotedData investment companies roundup – November 2017 – is our latest roundup of news; price, NAV and discount movements; flows in and out of the sector and report on full year dividends announced over the month of October 2017. Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford. November Investment Companies Roundup Globalworth Real Estate’s discount was eliminated after it announced […]
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12 Oct 2017 2 min read
QuotedData’s economic round up – October 2017
QuotedData’s economic round up – October 2017 – is a collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or […]
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27 Apr 2015 1 min read
The importance of income – where to find it?
Life used to be simpler. If you had a bit of spare cash or you wanted to save up for something you’d just stick some money in a bank or building society account. If you had a nest egg and wanted to invest it in something safe and live off the income, you’d maybe buy […]
News
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24 Dec 2020 2 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 24 December 2020
In QuotedData’s morning briefing 24 December 2020: Gresham House Energy Storage has conditionally agreed to acquire a c.30MW battery project located near Wester Dechmont, Livingston in West Lothian, Scotland. Byers Brae is a battery-only site with a c.30MW/30MW export/import capacity which is currently expected to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2021. The project is […]
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24 Jun 2020 1 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 24 June 2020
SDCL Energy Efficiency Income (SEIT) announced that after seeing the strong support given to the initial issue of new ordinary shares, announced on 18 June, the issue size has been increased from £60m to £110m. Augmentum Fintech (AUGM) announced that portfolio company, Zopa, has been awarded its full banking licence by the Prudential Regulatory Authority. […]
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24 Apr 2020 2 min read
Merchants Trust says dividend reserves to help protect distributions
Merchants Trust (MRCH) has reported final results to 31 January 2020. The landscape has changed considerably since the period-end. Over the annual results period, the performance highlights include: 18.7% increase in the NAV total return against 10.7% benchmark return; 18.6% rise in the share price; 4.2% increase in the dividend; 38th successive year of dividend growth; […]
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04 Jul 2019 1 min read
QuotedData’s other news 4 July 2019
In QuotedData’s other news 4 July 2019: Ashoka India Equity raised £5m from its issue of stock – it will issue 4,742,972 of its shares at a price of 111.7p. Cambria says that Payserv Africa Limited and Paynet Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd have instructed their legal practitioners in Zimbabwe, Titan Law, to commence legal action against the Bankers […]
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2 min read
Merchants Trust slashes debt costs
Merchants Trust slashes debt costs – The Merchants Trust PLC has entered into a new 3-year revolving credit facility with Scotiabank Europe Plc for GBP42 million. The money will be used to help repay £42m of Merchants’s Fintrust Debenture on 7 August 2019. This will significantly reduce the cost of debt. The weighted average interest rate […]
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29 Mar 2019 2 min read
Merchants Trust raises dividend for 37th consecutive year
Merchants Trust raises dividend for 37th consecutive year – The UK equity-focused income fund Merchants Trust (MRCH), which has a 130-year-old history, reported results today for the year to January 31, 2019. Highlights from the announcement Dividend growth of nearly 5%, ahead of inflation, and yield remains well above the sector average. The current dividend […]
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03 Apr 2018 2 min read
‘Experienced. Disciplined. Determined. All you want from a hero.’
‘Experienced. Disciplined. Determined. All you want from a hero.’ – Merchants Trust outperformed the All-Share, its benchmark index over the year to the end of January 2018. Its NAV total return was +14.5% with debt at market value, outperforming the benchmark total return of +11.3%. This investment return placed the company 6 out of 25 funds in […]
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23 Oct 2017 1 min read
Merchants Trust refinances debt
Merchants Trust refinances debt – The Merchants Trust has today priced an issue of a GBP35 million fixed rate 35 year secured private placement note with a coupon of 2.96%. The funding date, subject to final documentation, will be 18 December 2017, with interest payable semi-annually on 18 December and 18 June (first payment on 18 […]
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28 Jul 2016 8 min read
F&C Managed Portfolio beats benchmark despite widening discounts
F&C Managed Portfolio reports that, for the company’s financial year to 31 May 2016, the NAV total return (i.e. adding dividends paid to capital performance) was -4.8% for the Income shares and -4.5% for the Growth shares which represented outperformance against the -6.3% total return for the FTSE All-Share Index, the benchmark index for both […]
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31 Mar 2016 2 min read
34 consecutive years of dividend growth for Merchants Trust
Merchants Trust, managed by Simon Gergel (pictured) has announced its annual results for the year ended 31 January 2016. In what its Chairman, Simon Fraser, describes as a difficult year for equity markets, the trust has provided an NAV total return of -5.0% thereby modestly beating its FTSE All-Share benchmark, which provided a total return of […]
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24 Sep 2015 2 min read
Widening discount holds back Merchant Trust’s returns
Merchants Trust reports a 2.8% return on net assets for the six months ended 31 July 2015 and a -1.1% return to shareholders as the discount widened from 0.4% to 4.3%. The return on the FTSE100 Index for the period was 1.2%. Dividends for the first half totalled 12p, 1.7% higher than the pervious year. […]
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14 Apr 2015 1 min read
Merchants Trust held back by rising debt value
Merchants Trust has published results for the year ended 31 January 2015. Over that period the fund delivered a return on net assets of 4.7% which is about 2% behind the return generated by the FTSE100 Index over the same period. They say that most of this underperformance relates to changes in the market value […]
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02 Dec 2014 1 min read
The alternative plays in investment trusts
Source: http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/news-and-analysis/analysis/the-alternative-plays-in-investment-trusts/2016533.article Income-seeking investors would do well to look at the alternative plays on offer in the investment companies space, such as renewable energy and asset leasing With interest rates held so low for so long, it is not surprising investors have been looking for alternative ways to generate income. That search is only set to […]
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03 Apr 2014 1 min read
Merchants Trust : MRCH – annual results
Merchants Trust has released its results for the year ended 31 January 2014. The fund is 125 years old this year so the annual report (which you can access from the Merchants Trust page by clicking the link) dwells quite a bit on the fund’s progress since 1889. 2013/14 was not a bad year for […]
Upcoming Events
Videos
In The Press
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27 Nov 2020 2 min read
Bargains abound as investment trust sector yield spikes to 21st century high
Bargains abound as investment trust sector yield spikes to 21st century high Unweighted yield hit 5.2% at end-October David Brenchley, Investment Week, 25 November 2020 Income has been hard to come by for UK investors in recent years, and this was particularly the case in 2020 as Covid-19 wreaked havoc on dividends from stocks around […]
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23 Jul 2020 2 min read
Can investment trusts survive the UK dividend drought?
Can investment trusts survive the UK dividend drought? By Dave Baxter UK dividends have evaporated in the past few months, with no imminent recovery in sight. Link Asset Services predicts that UK dividends could fall by between 45 and 49 per cent on a headline basis in 2020 versus the previous year’s total, based on its best- and worst-case scenarios… […]
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14 Apr 2020 2 min read
How you can dodge the coronavirus dividend strike
How you can dodge the coronavirus dividend strike: Investors should choose trusts that have put aside money for rainy days By ANNE ASHWORTH FOR THE DAILY MAIL PUBLISHED: 21:51, 10 April 2020 | UPDATED: 09:59, 11 April 2020 The much-publicised move by the big banks to cancel their dividends has left investors with mixed emotions and many questions… The hundreds […]
