Murray Income Trust's Luke adds to quality ahead of PLI merger

Tie-up due for completion by 17 November

Aberdeen Standard Investments' (ASI) Charles Luke avoided the "temptation to lower the quality threshold" after the £485m Murray Income Trust (MUT) saw its underlying income stream cut by 15% during 2020 amid Covid-enforced dividend cuts.

Luke reasoned that when income is hard to find, there is a temptation for investors to compromise their quality threshold and invest in companies with high dividend yields but less-safe capital and income growth prospects. "What I have tried to do is absolutely to avoid that," Luke told Investment Week ahead of MUT's merger with the £464m Perpetual Income and Growth Trust (PLI). ASI's £900m mandate wins boost UK equity capabilities Luke said recent additions to MUT included FeverTree and Dechra Pharmaceuticals, which yield less than 1%, alongside Unite, which does not pay a dividen...