Murray Income Trust PLC
(“the Company”)
LEI: 549300IRNFGVQIQHUI13
Annual Report and Accounts for year ended 30 June 2026
Murray Income Trust PLC Trust plc (the “Company”) hereby submits its Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2026 as required by the Financial Conduct Authority’s Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rule 4.1.
The Company’s Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2026, including the Notice of Annual General Meeting, is being published in hard copy format and an electronic copy will shortly be available to download from the Company’s web page on the Manager’s website at MurrayIncome.com. It will also be made available to the public at the Company’s registered office, 50 Lothian Road, Edinburgh, EH3 9BY.
The Company’s Annual Report and Financial Statements will be uploaded to the Financial Conduct Authority’s National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at: https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism.
Enquiries:
Company Secretary
NSM Funds (UK) Limited
Strategic Report
Chair’s Statement
I am pleased to report important developments in the management of your Company in the year to June 2026.
Peter Tait, Chair
Highlights
· Artemis was appointed as the new Manager of the Company, following the completion of a strategic review.
· Subsequent to their appointment on 2 March 2026, Artemis completed the majority of its portfolio changes in March 2026.
· The Company negotiated a 9-month management fee waiver with Artemis on taking over the portfolio.
· Fees will now be charged on the lower of market capitalisation or NAV.
· Over the year to end June 2026, the Net Asset Value (“NAV”) total return was 15.1% and the share price total return was 19.2%.
· The Benchmark increased by 21.9% over the same period.
· After the transition of the portfolio in March, the NAV and share price returned 9.1% and 11.5% respectively against a Benchmark return of 4.7%.
· Annual dividend increased by 2.5%, the 53rd consecutive annual increase.
Overview
I am pleased to report important developments in the management of your Company in the year to June 2026.
At the start of the year, the Board initiated a strategic review of the management arrangements of the Company, resulting in the appointment of Artemis Fund Managers Limited (“Artemis”) from 2 March 2026. At the same time NSM Funds (UK) Limited was appointed as the Company Secretary and Northern Trust as the Depositary and Custodian. We look forward to working closely with these colleagues in the years ahead. After a significant level of preparatory work, the transition was effected smoothly. My thanks for their assistance in this process go to my fellow Board members, to our corporate broker Investec, legal advisers Dickson Minto and PR consultants Camarco. My thanks also to Artemis and NSM for their efforts during the transition period itself.
The total costs of the review relating to legal, corporate and administrative services, amounted to c.£600,000. The stamp duty costs in relation to the transition of the portfolio were to c.£3.9m. These costs were, however, offset by a 9-month management fee waiver on the annual management charges for the fund, which will amount to about £3m, and a one-off additional marketing contribution from Artemis of £150,000. At the end of the 9-month fee waiver in December, management fees will be charged at the lower of market capitalisation or NAV.
The year to end June was another year of significant geo-political activity. The effects of US tariff policy and the continuing war in Ukraine continued to be felt but the biggest shock to the global economy was the joint US/Israeli attack on Iran on 28 February 2026. This sent crude oil prices up from about $70 per barrel to nearly $120 per barrel at one point, as Iran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s supply of oil passes. The outbreak of hostilities in Iran added to UK market volatility during March, at the time when the portfolio was being transitioned by Artemis.
The impact on the UK economy was also significant. Before the outbreak of hostilities, there was a good chance of UK inflation heading down towards 2%, bank interest rates heading towards 3% and the 10-year bond yield heading towards 4%. At the time of writing, however, inflation remains stuck at about 3%, base rates have remained paused at 3.75%, and the 10-year bond yield is hovering at around 5%.
One key result of the various geo-political events and their effect on the UK economy, is likely to be that any thought of lower UK interest rates this year has been put on ice. Despite this, the UK stock market continued to make progress, rising by 21.9% in the year to end June helped by strong returns from the Financials and Metals & Mining sectors in particular. The share price return from your portfolio was modestly behind that of the UK benchmark over the year, but with that performance gap closing significantly after the appointment of Artemis in March of this year.
Investment Performance
Shareholders will find a detailed review of Artemis’s strategy and details of their performance and outlook in the Investment Manager’s Report. Headline performance figures may be found in the table below.
Dividend
On 30 July 2026, the Board announced the Company’s 53rd consecutive year of growth of dividend payments. For the year ended 30 June 2026, the dividend increased from 40.0p to 41.0p per share, a rise of 2.5%. Revenue for the year was 40.6p per share, slightly below the total dividend of 41.0p per share. However, share buybacks during the year reduced the number of shares entitled to the later dividends, thereby reducing their overall cost. Consequently, after allowing for the fourth interim dividend, revenue reserves increased slightly, and represented 56% of the annual dividend. The Board intends to continue delivering a progressive dividend. The fourth interim dividend of 12.5p was paid on 10 September 2026 to shareholders on the register on 7 August 2026. The ex-dividend date was 6 August 2026.
Discount and Share Buybacks
After a number of years during which investment trusts have traded at significant discounts to their underlying net asset value, I am pleased to report that there has been some narrowing of overall discount levels which, for general equity investment trusts, have reduced from around 9% to about 7.5% over the past year. This trend is partly due to more aggressive buyback policies from trust boards. Activist investors have also sought to persuade trust boards to address discount levels, whether through buybacks, continuation votes, performance-related tender offers, corporate restructurings, mergers, or a combination of all of these. Whatever the cause or causes, boards have become much more pro-active and consolidation in the trust sector has continued apace.
Your Board has been pro-active in launching a strategic review and employing a new investment and administration team. It has also continued to monitor the discount on a regular basis and has been active in buying back 4.6m shares, 4.7% of the opening share capital, over the past year at an average discount of 8.3%. The discount fell from 9.6% to 6.7% over the year with the effect of buying back shares adding a positive impact of 0.4% on the NAV total return. The Board will continue to monitor the discount and will remain active as and when it deems it necessary. As such, the Board will again be requesting shareholder approval at the AGM to renew the Company’s buyback and issuance powers.
Investment Performance
| Three | ||||||
| Performance Total Return | Since | Months (Post | 1 year to | 3 Years to | 5 Years to | 10 Years to |
| (annualised %) | Appointment | Repositioning) | 30 June 2026 | 30 June 2026 | 30 June 2026 | 30 June 2026 |
| Share priceAB | (0.4) | 11.5 | 19.2 | 10.2 | 6.9 | 8.4 |
| Net asset value per Ordinary shareABC | (1.2) | 9.1 | 15.1 | 9.1 | 6.4 | 7.5 |
| FTSE All-Share | (2.3) | 4.7 | 21.9 | 15.3 | 10.9 | 8.7 |
A Total return.
B Considered to be an Alternative Performance Measure.
C With debt at fair value.
Source: Lipper Limited/Artemis as at 30 June 2026. Figures show total returns with dividends reinvested, net of all charges. Performance does not take account of any costs incurred when investors buy or sell the trust.
The shares bought back are held in Treasury, meaning there is the potential for them to be reissued should the Company return to a sustained premium to NAV in the future. As at 30 June 2026, there were 93,313,684 (2025: 97,912,184) Ordinary 25p shares in issue with voting rights and 26,215,848 (2025: 21,617,348) shares held in Treasury.
Gearing
Artemis, as the new Manager, intends to continue to utilise gearing as a tool for enhancing portfolio performance. At the time that Artemis took over the portfolio, gearing was 5.3% but has risen modestly since then to 8.7% in line with the expected average level of gearing of 8-10% anticipated by Artemis.
The Company has in place £100 million of long-term borrowings made up of £40m loan notes redeemable at par in November 2027 and £60 million loan notes redeemable at par in May 2029. These combined have a weighted interest cost of 3.6%. The Company also has a three-year multi-currency revolving credit facility that runs to October 2027, but which can be reduced or terminated at short notice at no extra cost.
In conjunction with Artemis, the Board has considered whether Contracts for Difference (“CfDs”) can be used for gearing the portfolio with greater flexibility and potentially lower cost. CfDs are now used by a number of well‑established managers in the investment trust sector and plans are currently being put in place to establish the appropriate legal framework for such a development.
Investment, People and Process
The Artemis team which has managed the Company’s investment portfolio since March of this year consists of Adrian Frost, Andy Marsh and Nick Shenton who, between them, have 57 years of experience in running UK equity income portfolios. They will also be assisted by Investment Director Josh Passmore and Portfolio Analyst Jamie Lindsay.
The Artemis investment process is based on a disciplined long-term approach to value creation. It targets companies that can consistently generate durable and increasing levels of cash flow over the long term. They believe that investing in companies with strong cash flow characteristics will, in turn, lead to strong dividend growth. They build a diversified portfolio of 45 – 50 stocks based on where the market is deemed to be underestimating or undervaluing such cash flow. 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. The Managers have a total return mind-set and the portfolio is run on a truly active basis. The investment process is not driven by style bias, by sector classification or by benchmark weighting.
Board Composition
Having served nine years on the Board, I will be retiring as Chair, and from the Board, at the AGM on 29 October 2026. It is with great pleasure that I can confirm that Jane Lewis will take over as Chair (if her election as a Director is approved by shareholders) following that AGM. Jane joined the Board as Chair-designate in May of this year and has considerable current and previous investment trust board experience. I wish her every success in her new role.
Taking Stock – Final Comments
As I look back on my nine years on the board of Murray Income Trust – the past three as Chair – I can’t help but be astonished by how much has happened. We have lived through Brexit, a global Covid pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, recent conflicts in Gaza and Iran – and six British Prime Ministers! The Company has also seen some major changes. The merger with Perpetual Income and Growth Investment Trust in 2020 doubled the size of the Company. More recently, after a period of substantial underperformance, the Board initiated a strategic review which resulted in the appointment of Artemis as the Investment Manager of the Company.
No management change is easy, but one of the main upsides of investment trusts for long-term investors is having an independent board closely monitoring performance and making these tough decisions. The closed-end structure gives boards and managers the freedom to avoid short-termism and enhance capital and income growth through the judicious use of gearing and, in the case of your Company, a progressive dividend policy. That’s why I recommend trusts as the bedrock of any long-term savings plan and why, with the appointment of Artemis, I have personally increased my holdings in Murray Income Trust.
This is not to say that investment trusts do not face challenges. We need to educate and attract a new generation of investors. With the rise of AI, younger generations have more access to information about investing than ever before – not all of it wise counsel. My youngest daughter recently asked an AI website for the best place to invest. It suggested “the Magnificent Seven” – but this was after these stocks had substantially outperformed, and with no thought to risk management or control. We need to ensure that the sensible benefits of balanced, diversified portfolios like Murray Income Trust are not lost in the noise of AI.
Over the past 10 years, the Murray Income Trust portfolio has produced share price returns of over 8% per annum. At that rate, your holding will double in value approximately every nine years, compounding both capital and income at an attractive rate.
I leave you in the hands of an experienced Board and Management team, and look forward with great interest to watching how the portfolio performs under the style-agnostic, cashflow-driven investment process of the new Managers. The signs are positive.
Online Retail Shareholder Presentation
The Company will hold an online presentation for retail shareholders and interested parties at 11am on 13 October 2026. The Investment Manager and Chair will discuss investment matters and the outlook for the Company. You are welcome to submit questions during the presentation. Further information on how to register can be found using the link below:
Annual General Meeting
The Company is holding its AGM at 12:00pm on Thursday 29 October 2026 at the Balmoral Hotel, 1 Princes Street, Edinburgh EH2 2EQ.
I always welcome questions from our shareholders at the AGM. Alternatively, shareholders may submit questions prior to the AGM by sending an email to: mut@nsm.group.
Shareholders will find enclosed with this Annual Report an Invitation Card and Form of Proxy for use in relation to the AGM. Whether or not you are attending the AGM, shareholders are encouraged to complete the Form of Proxy, for which the latest date of receipt by the registrar is 12:00pm on 27 October 2026. Completion of a Form of Proxy does not prevent a shareholder from attending and voting in person at the AGM.
Shareholders who wish to attend and/or vote at the AGM and hold their shares via a platform will need to make arrangements with the administrator of their platform. Further details on how to attend and vote at company meetings for holders of shares via platforms can be found at: www.theaic.co.uk/aic/how-to-vote-your-shares.
Shareholders wishing to attend the AGM and who are unsure how to register, are invited to send an email to: mut@nsm.group
Peter Tait
Chair
8 September 2026