Bruce Stout

The company’s net asset value (NAV) posted a total return of 0.9%, although this is down from 12.4% in 2019. However, the firm’s share price total return was down by 5.3% compared to 16.5% the year before.

Subject to shareholder approval, total Ordinary dividends for the year will amount to 54.5p (2019: 53.5p), an increase of 1.9% This represents the 16th year of dividend increases for the company and cements its position as an AIC ‘Next Generation Dividend Hero’.

The firm has also announced that Simon Fraser, who joined the Board on 1 May 2020 will succeed Kevin Carter, as chairman after his retirement at the AGM in April.

The Audit and Risk Committee chair, Marcia Campbell, will also be retiring at the conclusion of the forthcoming AGM after completing nine years as a Board member. Claire Binyon will succeed Ms Campbell as chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at the conclusion of the forthcoming AGM.

Commenting on the results, Bruce Stout, investment director of Murray International, said: “Exogenous shocks and financial markets are seldom compatible companions. The former conjures up chaos, the latter craves certitude. Past panics, manias and stock market crashes invariably blame an extraneous event as the catalyst of catastrophe yet, in truth, the facts usually suggest otherwise.

“Forensic analysis of world-wide credit crunches, property collapses, banking blowouts or debt defaults clearly identify the DNA of disruption embedded in prolonged periods of unrealistic expectations and mismanagement. When historical post-mortems dissect the dramatic, destabilising events of the past twelve months, no such conclusions will be reached. In 2020, the Covid-19 virus caused the largest global recession in modern history, and nobody was to blame.”

Kevin Carter, outgoing chairman, Murray International Trust, added: “From an economic perspective, recovering from the Covid-19 induced worldwide recession presents numerous challenges. Virtually all sectors and businesses have experienced some degree of disruption, suggesting the landscape of the future is unlikely to return to the prior normality.

“The discovery and rollout of a number of effective vaccines against the virus hold out the prospect of emergence from the pandemic. However, the lasting legacy of enormous debt obligations accrued by some nations in response to Covid will linger for years to come. Clearly, the path ahead is not likely to be smooth.

“From an investment perspective, the Company’s unconstrained global mandate offers great flexibility. Whilst the developed world’s pandemic debt legacy may be long-lasting, numerous other parts of the world appear less constrained.

“Recent evidence already shows growth rebounding and business recovering in a number of Asian and developing countries that quickly contained infection rates last year. There is the prospect of improving corporate profits and above average dividend and capital growth from many high-quality companies exposed to these markets. Portfolio exposures will continue to focus on such businesses in pursuit of the Company’s long-term investment objective.”