Revenue Reserve
Merchants Trust

Overview

The objective of this trust is to provide an above average level of income, income growth and long-term growth of capital through a policy of investing mainly in higher yielding large UK companies. The benchmark against which performance is measured is the FTSE AllShare Index. The approach is suitable for retail investors in the UK and is designed for investors seeking growth in capital and income from mainly UK equity markets. The fund charges a total expense ratio of 0.50% per year.

Reserves, Dividends & Cover

The dividends per share have increased over the last 10 years showing moderate growth. The total increase was 24.69% (2.03% annualized), below the rate of inflation of 37.56% (2.94% annualized) over the same period. The revenue reserves have been increased at almost the same rate as the dividends with an increase of 23.27% (1.92% annualized), which means that the reserve as a percentage of the dividends has remained stable. The reserve cover started at 1.07 years in 2006 and ended with 1.06 years in 2017. Over the period, the company maintained the value of the revenue reserves at a rate of close to 1. The 10 year change in revenue reserves is 0.57% p.a. versus RPI at 1.92% p.a.