Caledonia Investments PLC on Tuesday said net asset value grew in its latest year, and announced an increase to its annual dividend.

The London-based FTSE 250 investment trust said its net asset value per share rose to 5.369 pence at March 31, from 5.068p at the same time one year prior.

Shares in Caledonia Investments were trading 1.4% higher at 3,540.00p, late on Tuesday morning in London.

The NAV per share total return was positive 7.4% for the year to March 31, compared with the positive 5.5% delivered the year before. However this underperformed against the FTSE All Share index which reported a total return of positive 8.4%.

Caldonia Investments said all three of its investment pools contributed to this growth, with returns from Public Companies and Private Capital of positive 12.0% and 12.3% respectively. The investment portfolio delivered a positive 8.7% return, despite approximately £39 million in ‘foreign exchange headwinds’.

Caledonia Investments is proposing a final dividend of 51.47p per share, up from 47.3p for the previous year. This brings the total payout up 4.5% to 70.4p from 67.4p.

Looking ahead, Caledonia Investments warned that the ‘economic, fiscal, geopolitical and technological environments appear to be in a state of flux and somewhat unpredictable’, but said it is taking ‘steps to mitigate these risks’ and ‘avoiding debt to drive returns’.

It also reminded investors that its strategy ‘takes a long-term view, with the premise being that exposure to good-quality companies over long time periods is preferable to short-term trading’.

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