Murray Income Trust PLC
Half Yearly Report 31 December 2025
An investment trust founded in 1923 aiming for high and growing income with capital growth
Investment Objective
The Company aims for a high and growing income combined with capital growth through investment in a portfolio principally of UK equities.
Benchmark
The Company’s benchmark is the FTSE All-Share Index
Performance Highlights
| Net asset value total returnABC | Share price total returnAB | |||
| Six months ended 31 December 2025 | Six months ended 31 December 2025 | |||
| +8.1% | +9.4% | |||
| Year ended 30 June 2025 | +2.7% | Year ended 30 June 2025 | +4.3% | |
| Benchmark total returnAD | Ongoing chargesB | |||
| Six months ended 31 December 2025 | Forecast year to 30 June 2026 | |||
| +13.7% | 0.48% | |||
| Year ended 30 June 2025 | +11.2% | Year ended 30 June 2025 | 0.48% | |
| Earnings per share (revenue) | Dividend per Ordinary share | |||
| Six months ended 31 December 2025 | Year ended 30 June 2025 | |||
| 13.9p | 40.00p | |||
| Six months ended 31 December 2024 | 15.2p | Year ended 30 June 2024 | 38.50p | |
| Discount to net asset valueBC | Dividend yieldB | |||
| As at 31 December 2025 | As at 31 December 2025 | |||
| 8.7% | 4.4% | |||
| As at 30 June 2025 | 9.6% | As at 30 June 2025 | 4.7% | |
| A Total return (see definition in Alternative Performance Measures). | ||||
| B Considered to be an Alternative Performance Measure. | ||||
| C With debt at fair value. | ||||
| D The Company’s benchmark is the FTSE All-Share Index. | ||||
| Net asset value per share BCAt 30 June (*31 December) – pence | Dividends per shareYear ended 30 June – pence | Mid-Market price per shareAt 30 June (*31 December) – pence | |
| 2021 | 935.7 | 34.50 | 871.0 |
| 2022 | 871.0 | 36.00 | 832.0 |
| 2023 | 911.7 | 37.50 | 837.0 |
| 2024 | 957.9 | 38.50 | 857.0 |
| 2025 | 944.8 | 40.00 | 854.0 |
| 2025* | 1000.0 | 913.0 |
Financial Calendar, Dividends and Investment Portfolio by Sector
Financial Calendar
| Payment dates of quarterly dividends | March, June, September, December |
| Financial year end | 30 June |
| Expected announcement date of annual results | September |
| Annual General Meeting | 29 October 2026 |
Dividends
| Rate | Ex-dividend date | Record date | Payment date | |
| First interim | 9.50p | 13 Nov 2025 | 14 Nov 2025 | 11 Dec 2025 |
| Second interim | 9.50p | 12 Feb 2026 | 13 Feb 2026 | 12 Mar 2026 |
Chair’s Statement
Highlights
· After a detailed strategic review, the Board has appointed Artemis to be the new manager of the Company from early March 2026.
· The net asset value (“NAV”) total return for the six months ended 31 December 2025 (the “Period”) was 8.1% (with debt at fair value), against a benchmark return of 13.7%.
· The share price increased to 913.0 pence from 854.0p over the Period, with a total return of 9.4%, while the discount decreased from 9.6% to 8.7%.
· The total dividend, for the year ended 30 June 2025, increased by 3.9% to 40.0p per share, the 52nd consecutive year of dividend growth. The total dividend for the year to 30 June 2026 is expected to exceed 40.0p per share.
· Share buybacks amounted to 2.4 million shares, equivalent to 2.4% of the outstanding share capital (excluding treasury shares).
Strategic Review
The Board of Murray Income Trust undertook a strategic review last year after a sustained period of significant underperformance. The Board was pleased to announce, towards the end of the year, and as a result of that review, the appointment of Artemis Fund Managers to manage the Murray Income portfolio. Artemis will take control of the management of the portfolio from early March 2026.
The Company’s investment objective – to aim for a high and growing income combined with capital growth through investment in a portfolio principally of UK equities – is not changing as a result of this appointment. There are also no changes to the Company’s benchmark (FTSE All-Share Index), or to the gearing and dividend policies, or the approach to share buybacks.
The Company has a 52-year unbroken record of progressive dividend growth and intends to maintain its AIC Dividend Hero status under Artemis’ management. The Company’s future dividends will be supported by the cashflows of the portfolio companies selected by Artemis.
The portfolio will be managed by Artemis’ market-leading UK equity income team of Adrian Frost, Andy Marsh and Nick Shenton. The Board believes Artemis’ disciplined, long-term approach to value creation and their focus on compounding income and capital are a strong fit for Murray Income Trust’s objectives and is confident that this appointment will position the Company to deliver sustainable value for shareholders in the years ahead.
The Company will benefit from a highly competitive fee structure, including management fees that will be payable on the lower of net assets or market capitalisation, increasing the alignment between the Investment Manager and the Company’s shareholders. The Company expects that its pro forma Ongoing Charges Ratio (“OCR”) will continue to be below 0.50% per annum.
A nine-month investment management fee waiver has been agreed with Artemis once they take on the portfolio.
Investment Performance
During the six months ended 31 December 2025, the Company’s NAV (with debt at fair value) total return was 8.1% while the share price total return was 9.4% and the FTSE All-Share Index total return was 13.7%. Further detail on the investment performance of the portfolio can be found in the Investment Manager’s Report.
Dividend
The dividend for the year ended 30 June 2025 was increased by 3.9% to 40.0p per share, the 52nd year of consecutive dividend growth. First and second interim dividends of 9.5p per share for the year to 30 June 2026, with pay dates of 11 December 2025 and 12 March 2026 respectively, have been announced. The third and fourth interim dividends have yet to be declared but are expected to result in total dividends for the year ended 30 June 2026 exceeding 40.0p per share.
As noted at this time last year, the Board is aware that listed stocks, in which the Company invests, are currently making greater use of share buybacks. In the main, this is in addition to paying dividends but, in several cases, they are being used as a substitute for dividends. According to Computershare, UK dividends were £88bn and share buybacks were £64bn during calendar year 2025. Whilst this might put pressure on dividend growth in the short term, it is also a sign that UK companies believe that there is good value to be had in their own shares. This bodes well for future market returns as, indeed, was the case during 2025 when the UK FTSE All-Share increased by 24.0%. Such share buybacks also enhance the earnings per share of the underlying companies, potentially giving them more scope for dividend increases in future years.
Discount and share buybacks
During the Period, the Company bought back 2.4% of its outstanding shares (excluding treasury shares) as at 1 July 2025 and the discount to NAV fell from 9.6% to 8.7%.
The Company has continued to pursue share buybacks in order to take advantage of the discount to NAV at which the Company’s shares trade. Share buybacks help to stabilise and reduce the volatility of the Company’s share price while also enhancing the underlying NAV for continuing shareholders.
Board and Board Succession
My thanks to the Board for their hard work, commitment and valued input during the process of the strategic review. Such actions as a strategic review are not undertaken lightly and involve a significant amount of research and due diligence. My thanks, also, to our corporate advisers, Investec, for their input and detailed analysis during this process.
This will be my final year as Chair of the Company. After serving nine years as a Director, I will retire from the Board at the AGM in November. The process to determine the next Chair is currently underway.
At this point, I would also like to express my appreciation for Charles Luke and his team at Aberdeen. Charlie has managed the Company portfolio for nearly 20 years and has done so with the utmost dedication and discipline, always willing to engage with the Board and shareholders about his investment philosophy and portfolio activity. I wish him and the team well in the future.
Artemis Investment Team
The Artemis team, which will be managing the Company’s investment portfolio from early March 2026, consists of Adrian Frost, Andy Marsh and Nick Shenton who, between them, have 46 years of UK equity income experience with Artemis. They will be assisted by Investment Director John Passmore and Portfolio Analyst Jamie Lindsay.
Artemis Investment Process
The Artemis investment process targets companies that can consistently generate durable and increasing levels of cash flow over the long term. The process is not driven by style bias nor by sector classification nor benchmark weighting. The team builds a diversified portfolio of 45 – 50 stocks based on where the market is deemed to be underestimating or undervaluing such intrinsic cash flows. Over the long-term, thinking like owners of the business builds a greater understanding of the drivers of a company’s prospects and allows for closer engagement with management teams over how best capital should be allocated between re-investment and dividend returns to shareholders. Artemis has a total return mindset and the portfolio is run on a truly active basis.
Overview – The market paradox
Once again, geo-political events have dominated the news cycle during the Period. Stock markets continue to shrug off these issues and concentrate on more mundane, yet important, matters such as corporate earnings growth, interest rate policy and trends in inflation. This situation remains one of the great market paradoxes of the past few years. International tensions have been rising, especially since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but so have equity markets, although not without increased volatility. Of course, geo-political events have had some impact, such as the continuing strength of companies in the defence sector and the recent surge in the gold price, but the UK market has been concentrating on events of a more domestic nature such as fiscal policy, attempts to make the London Stock Exchange more attractive for companies to list there and the relative undervaluation of UK equities themselves – the latter as evidenced by the increasing amount of takeover activity in the UK market, and the strong performance of UK equities over the past 6 and 12 months. This strong performance of UK equities in the past year is another example of the market paradox as there has been a continuing outflow from UK equity markets over the past year. Despite this, it is heartening to note that UK equities produced a very healthy total return of +24% significantly eclipsing US equities (+8.6%, total return, in GBP terms) during the calendar year 2025 despite all the attention given to the so-called ‘magnificent 7’ stocks in the USA. It was not until November, however, that there was a modest positive inflow into UK active equities overall (£52m according to the Investment Association) as investors started to reassess the relative attractions of UK equities and perhaps breathed a sigh of relief that, at long last, the speculation over the outcome of the UK Budget was over.
The question, as ever, is whether this momentum in UK equities can be maintained. Of course geo-politics will dominate the headlines again and markets will remain volatile but I would venture to suggest that what will be more important for UK equities during 2026 will be the trends in domestic inflation and interest rates. Although inflation remained well above target in 2025, the Bank of England (“BoE”) cut interest rates four times to 3.75%. The consensus view, echoed by the BoE itself, is that the rate of inflation will fall to closer to its target of 2% in the next few months, despite inflation still remaining above 3% at the end of 2025. The trend towards lower inflation in 2026 will be helped by lower petrol prices and such things as the freeze on rail fares and prescription charges. If this scenario comes to pass, then there is scope for further cuts to UK interest rates, possibly by another 0.50%, or even 0.75%. Falling rates of inflation and cuts to interest rates are generally good news for markets despite the multitude of exogenous headwinds, although it is unlikely that the stellar returns of 2025 will be repeated. The UK market climbed a wall of worry during 2025 with particular concern over the level of government indebtedness. What is much less talked about, however, is the fact that UK real wages have been rising. The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics showed annual wage growth of 4.5% in the previous twelve months, well above the rate of inflation. Consumer finances are also actually quite robust. The Household Savings Ratio currently stands at over 9% against an average of about 6.5% in the pre-Covid years. One reason for this has been continuing concern about the health of the UK economy but if that sentiment improves on the back of both lower inflation rates and interest rates, there could be a substantial boost to UK consumer expenditure if these household savings are unlocked. Research from Barclays Bank suggests that savers in the UK own about £430bn of cash assets which could be suitable for spending or investing, rather than saving.
I look forward to the Artemis team taking over responsibility for the portfolio. Their approach is very much bottom-up stock-picking and, whether faced with endogenous UK economic and market dynamics or exogenous geo-political shocks, I am confident that their approach will produce successful long-term total returns within a well-balanced UK equity income portfolio.
Peter Tait
Chair
26 February 2026