Investment trust Schroder Oriental Income (LON:SOI) has become the first Asia-focused fund to attain ‘Dividend Hero’ status with the AIC (Association of Investment Companies). In addition, the company generated a total share price return of over 50% for the year to 31 August 2026.
Becoming a ‘Dividend Hero’
By delivering its 20th consecutive annual dividend increase since launch, the trust has become an AIC ‘Dividend Hero’. Schroder Oriental Income is the first Asia-focused investment trust to achieve this distinction.
For FY26, the trust is paying a total dividend of 12.8p per share, up 4.9% on the previous year. This compares with a revenue return of 11.76p per share, although the company has ‘significant’ undistributed reserves to support future payouts.
Strong performance
The trust generated a net asset vale total return of 51.7% and a share price total return of 56.9%. That compares with a 43.9% return for the MSCI Pacific ex Japan Index in sterling terms net of dividends.
Manager Richard Sennitt described the Asian markets as ‘very narrow’, dominated as they were by the AI-heavy indices of Korea and Taiwan. Despite being underweight these markets for most of the period, Sennitt’s stock selection process drove the outperformance.
‘Stock selection was ‘consistently positive’, including in Australia, China, Singapore and Taiwan, said the manager. Meanwhile, from an allocation perspective, the underweight position in mainland China was by far the biggest performance contributor.
Schroder Oriental Income NAV and share price total returns
| 1 Year | 3 Years* | 5 Years* | 10 Years* | |
| NAV Total return | 51.7% | 27.6% | 16.4% | 11.4% |
| Share price total return | 56.9% | 28.0% | 16.5% | 12.0% |
| Benchmark | 43.9% | 24.4% | 11.0% | 9.8% |
Source: Schroder Oriental Income Fund, *performance data to 30 Sept 2026
We flagged Schroder Oriental Income in our ‘Six of the best Asian income funds’ article last week due to its outstanding performance. The trust’s NAV and share price returns have consistently beaten the index over one, three, five and 10 years.
It’s testament to the manager’s process that the trust outperformed depite being underweight the two hottest markets. In addition, it ended the year with tech the largest underweight after taking profits so it’s avoided most of the recent carnage.
It’s also notable that while the dividend may not have been fully covered, the board understood the importance of Dividend Hero status. The diversified nature of the portfolio means dividends can still grow even in volatile markets, plus the trust has significant reserves.
