Witan Investment Trust plc (LON:WTAN) has announced that a fourth interim dividend of 1.69p per ordinary share of 5p, in respect of the year ended 31 December 2023, will be paid on Friday 15 March 2024 to shareholders registered at the close of business on Friday 23 February 2024 (the ex-dividend date is Thursday 22 February). Taken together with the three interim dividends of 1.45p each paid in June, September and December 2023, this represents a total dividend payment of 6.04p in respect of 2023 (2022: 5.80p). The dividend is being partly funded using an estimated £7.0 million from revenue reserves (2022: £6.4 million).
The Company’s policy is that over the long term it intends (subject to market conditions) to grow the dividend in real terms, ahead of inflation. The increase of 4.1% this year is ahead of the 4.0% rate of consumer price index inflation in December 2023 and the dividend has grown substantially ahead of UK inflation over the past 5 and 10 years. The Company has increased the dividend every year for the last 49 years and the latest dividend is more than double that paid in 2013.
In accordance with the Company’s policy, in the absence of unforeseen circumstances the first three interim dividends of the current financial year (in June, September and December 2024) will be paid at the rate of 1.51p (2023: 1.45p), being one quarter of the 6.04p total payment in respect of 2023.
The Witan Investment Trust Board has declared a fourth interim dividend instead of a final dividend, in order to ensure that, as in previous years, the distribution is made before 5 April.
