Hardman & Co Research: Perky markets support dividend hike

City of London has announced a trading update for 2Q'20. At the end of December, FUM had grown to $6.01bn, a 13% increase over the September 2019 figure of $5.34bn. This was driven by healthy market growth and more inflows into the Developed World strategy. A rebound in the exchange rate means a smaller increase in FUM of 5% in sterling terms. The highlight for many investors will be in the increase in the interim dividend of 1p to 10p. While nothing has been said about the full-year dividend, increasing that at the same rate would still leave the five-year rolling dividend cover, on our estimates, above the 1.2x target.

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