European Assets Trust (EAT) has announced its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2020, during which it comfortably outperformed in a difficult year. EAT’s sterling NAV total return was 21.9% for the year ended, which it says compares to an 18.9% return for the EMIX Smaller European Companies (ex UK) Index, its benchmark. EAT’s sterling share price total return was less than this at 17.4 %, reflecting a widening of the discount. The year’s results have kept EAT’s long term performance record intact – for the ten years ended 31 December 2020 , EAT’s sterling NAV total return was 235.6% and its sterling share price total return was 263.5%. These are both significantly ahead of the 168.3% return provided by its benchmark.
A dividend of 8.00 pence per share has been declared for 2021, which is an increase of 14.0% from the 2020 dividend of 7.02 pence per share. This is equivalent to 6% of the closing Net Asset Value per share on 31 December 2020, in line with EAT’s dividend policy. The 2021 dividend will be paid in four equal instalments. The first interim dividend of 2.0 pence per share was paid in January 2021 with further dividends payable in April, July and October.
Unfortunately, this morning’s announcement does not include any commentary from the investment manager or any more detailed performance attribution, so we are unable to comment on that here.