Investment trust CT UK High Income is a provider of attractive income, primarily from a portfolio of high-yielding UK shares. 

Recent results indicate that under the command of a new manager this trust can deliver income against the backdrop of rising capital returns – something the trust has struggled to achieve in recent years.

Half-year results issued late last month show that in the six months to the end of September, the trust reported overall share price returns of 9.4 per cent, compared with 6.1 per cent from the FTSE All-Share Index, its benchmark. 

'We are pleased to report an outperformance of the company's benchmark over this period as the UK market remained resilient to ongoing wider geopolitical instability,' said Andrew Watkins, the trust's chairman.

The stock market-listed trust has been run since July last year by David Moss, a portfolio manager with Columbia Threadneedle (CT) Investments who also runs the CT Select UK Equity Income Fund.

'What we are trying to do for shareholders is deliver a high level of income – and to grow it as well,' he says, 'while offering the prospect of capital growth on top.' It is certainly delivering on the income front. 

Shares in the trust, capitalised at £74 million, are currently providing a dividend equivalent to 6.5 per cent per year.

It has also managed to grow annual dividend payments for 11 years on the trot. The missing part of the jigsaw is long-term growth in the trust's share price. Over the past five years, it is down nearly 5 per cent.

Moss was brought in by the trust's board to improve total returns for shareholders. And while the half-year results indicate the performance numbers are moving in the right direction, he knows more needs to be done. 'We need to deliver more capital growth for a longer period,' he says.

The trust is currently invested in 40 stocks with more than 75 per cent of its assets in FTSE100 shares. 

Although it holds dividend-friendly big names such as Shell, HSBC, and insurers Phoenix and Legal & General, Moss says the portfolio is more diverse than maybe meets the eyes of many investors. 

Some of its stocks, for example, are listed on the FTSE250 Index such as brick manufacturer Ibstock – or dual listed (Irish housebuilder Cairn Homes, whose shares trade both on the UK and Irish stock markets). 

Both have performed strongly over the past year, with their shares rising by 44 and 64 per cent respectively.

The portfolio also contains a smattering of European stocks – French industrial conglomerate Schneider Electric, German software company SAP and Dutch semi-conductor specialist ASM International (not to be confused with ASML).

'We can invest up to 10 per cent of the portfolio in overseas stocks,' explains Moss, 'but currently it is limited to those three stakes. 

'First, because we only invest in overseas companies if they offer something that we can't get from a UK company. Also, from an investment potential point of view, all the value is in the UK.'

Moss has mixed views on the Government. Although he admits to being 'disappointed' by the National Insurance costs heaped on businesses by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, he hopes that now 'all the bad news is out there'. 

As an investment manager who also runs an offshore European fund for Columbia Threadneedle, Moss says the UK is a better investment proposition than Europe.

The trust pays income quarterly. The stock market identification code is B1N4G29 and the ticker CHI. Overall annual charges are 1.6 per cent (source: Hargreaves Lansdown).