Scottish Mortgage’s Premium Revival: £43m Share Sale and £250m Private-Market Mandate Follow Record NAV Gain
30.05.2026 - 05:43:27 | boerse-global.de
The year ending March 2026 was a watershed for Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust. A net asset value return of 27.4 per cent, handily beating the FTSE All-World’s 18 per cent, propelled total assets to around £16.1bn. The share price followed suit, climbing 26.8 per cent over the period and lifting the year-to-date gain to 30.09 per cent, with the stock changing hands at €18.07. Net profit surged to £3,101.62m from £1,217.76m a year earlier, while earnings per share rocketed to 275.31p from 94.57p.
Yet the most telling sign of the trust’s turnaround came in late May. On 29 May, Scottish Mortgage issued 2.85 million shares from its own treasury at 1,521.59 pence each, generating gross proceeds of approximately £43.4m. Crucially, the placement was executed at a premium to the prevailing net asset value — a stark reversal from the 9.5 per cent discount at which the trust traded at its fiscal year-end. After the transaction, the trust held 371,864,074 treasury shares, with 1,112,916,806 shares in issue.
The shift from discount to premium reflects renewed investor appetite. It also enabled the trust to raise fresh capital without diluting existing holders at a discount — a luxury that had been absent for much of the recent market downturn. For a closed-end fund that had spent time buying back its own stock, this marks a strategic about-face.
Dividend streak extends to 43 years
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Scottish Mortgage Investment?
Alongside the equity market manoeuvre, Scottish Mortgage rewarded income-seeking shareholders with a 4.3 per cent increase in the total dividend, lifting it to 4.57 pence per share. A final dividend of 2.97 pence will be paid on 10 July 2026, securing the trust’s 43rd consecutive year as a member of the Association of Investment Companies’ “Dividend Heroes” list. The trust’s ongoing charges remain a low 0.33 per cent, and no performance fees are levied.
Private-market firepower expanded
The biggest strategic development, however, was the change to investment policy approved by shareholders on 10 April 2026. The new rule allows the manager to deploy up to an additional £250m into private companies, even if the portfolio’s allocation to unlisted holdings has already breached the existing 30 per cent ceiling. The enhanced mandate is subject to annual renewal, giving investors a governance check on the use of this flexibility.
Scottish Mortgage has long been a heavy investor in pre-IPO names, and the big winner over the past year has been SpaceX. The rocket company now accounts for more than 19 per cent of the portfolio — its largest single position — valued at nearly £3bn. It was also the single biggest contributor to the trust’s performance over the fiscal year. The anticipated initial public offering, expected in June 2026, would provide a public market price for what is currently marked-to-model.
Portfolio tilt stays firmly on tech and AI
Beyond SpaceX, the trust’s top holdings include Amazon, Anthropic (recently valued at roughly $900bn), Stripe (over $150bn in its latest funding round), Taiwan Semiconductor and ASML. Nvidia, once a core holding, has been trimmed, but the broader commitment to artificial-intelligence infrastructure, digital payments and healthcare innovation remains intact. Gearing eased to around 11 per cent from 13 per cent, thanks largely to portfolio gains.
Portfolio manager Tom Slater argues that the closed-end structure gives the trust a competitive edge — it can hold names like SpaceX through the entire journey to an IPO without being forced to sell into a weak market. That patient approach, combined with the new private-market capacity, positions the trust for what he sees as the next wave of technological disruption.
For now, the return of a premium valuation and the successful share issuance are tangible signs that the market is buying into that vision. The next big test will be the SpaceX listing. If it goes well, the premium could widen further; if not, the freshly granted private-market flexibility will be put to the test sooner rather than later.
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