The board of the Aberdeen Emerging Markets investment trust has made changes to its management fee which would have had the effect of reducing it.
The £338m trust currently charges an annualised rate of 1 per cent of adjusted market capitalisation, reduced by the proportion of the trust’s net assets invested in funds which are managed by Aberdeen Asset Management.
From November this will become an annualised rate of 0.8 per cent of net assets, reduced in the same manner.
This revised fee structure, had it been in place in June, would have meant the trust would have had a fee of 0.74 per cent of net assets.
Meanwhile the board has also announced plans to start paying a dividend, with a first one to be declared in August and in future years this will be paid quarterly.
It is expected the total dividend in the next full financial year will be no less than 20p per share.
Mark Hadsley-Chaplin, chairman of Aberdeen Emerging Markets investment trust, said: “The board believes that the introduction of dividend payments along with the revised management fee will be welcomed by existing and prospective investors.
“The investment team is delivering competitive returns and the initiatives outlined above are designed to enhance the appeal of their efforts to a broad range of investors.”
The trust, which is managed by Andrew Lister and Bernard Moody, has achieved its objective of benchmark outperformance over the past three years.
Its net asset value increased 37.2 per cent compared to its benchmark, the MSCI Emerging Markets Net Total Return index, which increased by 35.8 per cent.
damian.fantato@ft.com
