Witan moves to quarterly dividend payments

The £1.3bn Witan Investment trust has moved to quarterly dividend payments after announcing a 10% rise in payouts for 2012.

The trust, headed up by Andrew Bell, will pay a second interim dividend of 7.2p per ordinary share of 25p on 28 March, taking total dividend payments for the year to 13.2p - the 38th consecutive year the trust has increased its dividend. However, the trust's board said it will pay dividends on a quarterly basis from 2013 onwards in order to satisfy investor demand. "In recent years, the practice of paying dividends quarterly rather than twice a year has become more common, as the level of personal investor ownership in many investment trusts has grown and electronic payment systems ha...