What is The City of London Investment Trust?

Managed by Janus Henderson, with Job Curtis as fund manager since 1991 and David Smith as deputy since 2021. CTY aims for long-term growth in both income and capital, investing mainly in shares listed on the London Stock Exchange, and its board says it fully recognises the importance of A payment made by a company to its shareholders, typically representing a distribution of the company's profits.income to shareholders. It sits in the AIC UK Equity Income sector.

The portfolio leans towards big, well-known UK companies. Typically at least 60% is in large companies (worth more than £5 billion when bought), with the rest in medium and smaller firms. No more than 20% can go into companies listed overseas.

The company was formed in 1860 to buy Calverts, a family brewer in the City of London, registered as a limited company in 1891, and has invested along Investment Trust lines since 1932, making it one of the UK's oldest Investment Trusts.

The aim is to be invested in those companies that can support their dividends through profits and cash generation and invest enough for growth. The quality of the companies in the portfolio, some leading global businesses and others with strong market positions in the UK, gives confidence for the future.

Job CurtisFund Manager, The City of London Investment Trust

Why is it rated by Boring Money?

CTY has raised its dividend every year for 60 years in a row, the longest record of any Investment Trust, and the first UK trust to reach 60. That earns it a place on the AIC's Dividend Heroes list (trusts with 20+ years of consecutive increases). The Investment Trust structure helps here: the trust can hold back some income in good years to top up dividends in lean ones.

It's also big and cheap. With around £3 billion in total assets, it has an ongoing charge of just 0.36%. The management fee is 0.3% a year on net assets up to £3 billion, falling to 0.275% above that, and there's no performance fee.

Experience counts too. Job Curtis has run the trust since 1991, one of the longest manager tenures around. Morningstar gives it four stars and a Gold analyst rating; it holds a FundCalibre Elite Rating, and the AIC named it an ISA Millionaire trust in 2026.

Boring Money

The City of London Investment Trust

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How has CTY performed?

1-year Cumulative Performance	5-year Cumulative Performance	10-year Cumulative Performance
17.9%	85.2%	129.6%

1-year Cumulative Performance	5-year Cumulative Performance	10-year Cumulative Performance
17.9%	85.2%	129.6%

All data herein is sourced from FE fundinfo and is correct as at the end of October 2026. Boring Money is not responsible for any data discrepancies.

Why look at it now?

CTY has just notched up its 60th consecutive year of dividend growth, with the annual dividend up 4.0% for the year to 30 June 2026. Over that financial year, its NAV returned 21.9%, matching the FTSE All-Share and ahead of the AIC and IA UK Equity Income peer group averages. The shares currently yield 3.82%.

The manager believes UK shares could be undervalued compared with overseas markets, and finds UK A dividend yield is a financial ratio that shows how much a company pays out in dividends each year relative to its stock price. It is calculated by dividing the annual dividends per share by the current market price per share, and is typically expressed as a percentage. For example, if the share price of a company was £100 and the annual dividend was £3, that would mean the dividend yield was 3%. attractive against the main alternatives. If you want income from established UK companies without picking stocks yourself, CTY is a low-cost, long-proven option.

What is the risk rating for CTY?

We rank this at 4/5 on our For a guide on how spicy any trust is, we use FE fundinfo’s Risk Score and sort the trusts into one of our 5 chilli bands. Cash would be no chilli. A non-volatile smooth trust would be 1 or 2. The FTSE 100 would clock in as 4 chillies. Anything very volatile and spicy is a 5..

CTY invests in large, established UK companies, so it is less volatile than specialist or emerging markets trusts. It still carries risks. Over 90% of the portfolio is UK-listed, and financials make up more than a third of it. Its focus on dividend payers can mean lagging the market, and lasting dividend cuts by its holdings would threaten its 60-year record. Borrowing magnifies gains and losses, the shares can trade above or below asset value, and charging some costs to capital can hold back growth.Best held for the long term as part of aThe process of spreading your investment portfolio across different asset classes, such as partially in shares and partially in bonds, in order to reduce risk. portfolio.

What regions does CTY invest in?

What sectors does CTY invest in?

Led by financials (banks and insurers), alongside consumer staples such as tobacco, food and household goods, then energy, healthcare and industrials.

What are the top holdings?

CTY is a who's who of theAlso called “Footsie”, the name for the share index made up of the largest 100 companies by market capitalisation (total value of all shares) listed on the London Stock Exchange.. Its biggest holding, HSBC, is 6.7% of the portfolio, and the top 10 together make up about 38%, so it's far less concentrated than many trusts. Banks are the standout theme: HSBC, NatWest and Lloyds together account for around 14%. Beyond that you'll find oil majors (Shell, BP), defensive consumer names (British American Tobacco, Unilever, Tesco), defence group BAE Systems and miner Rio Tinto.

Top 10 holdings	Weight
HSBC	6.7%
Shell	5.2%
NatWest Group	4.1%
British American Tobacco	3.6%
BAE Systems	3.6%
Lloyds Banking Group	3.3%
Unilever	3.2%
Tesco	3.0%
BP	2.9%
Rio Tinto	2.8%

Top 10 holdings	Weight
HSBC	6.7%
Shell	5.2%
NatWest Group	4.1%
British American Tobacco	3.6%
BAE Systems	3.6%
Lloyds Banking Group	3.3%
Unilever	3.2%
Tesco	3.0%
BP	2.9%
Rio Tinto	2.8%