Montanaro European Smaller Companies delivers 'unremarkable' return

Suffered from growth reversal

The Montanaro European Smaller Companies trust (MESCT) returned 7.9% to investors in the year to March 2022, a result significantly lower than the average for the last three and five years.

According to the company's annual financial results for the year, the net asset value of the trust rose by 7.9% to 171.5p per share during the financial year ended 31 March 2022, while its benchmark, the MSCI Europe (ex-UK) Small Cap Index rose by 2.2%. Over three and five years respectively to 31 March 2022, the trust delivered a NAV total return of 20.1% and 17.0% per year, outperforming its benchmark by 7.6% and 8.3%. Over this period, the share price moved from a premium to NAV of over 1% to a discount of 2%. As a result, the share price total return was 4.8%. The dividend of 0.92...