By Mark McSherry

The £2 billion Edinburgh-based Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust plc (TEMIT) has announce four key initiatives which aim to increase demand for its shares.

TEMIT has pledged a share buyback programme for up to £200 million over the next 12 to 24 months, a commitment to distribute £278 million in dividends over the next five years, and a phased reduction in management fees over the next two years.

TEMIT also pledged a new “performance-related conditional tender offer measured over the next five years for 25% of the company’s shares, equivalent to £498 million of the Net Asset Value (NAV) as at 31 March 2024.

TEMIT chairman Angus Macpherson said: ‘The board does not believe that the discount at which the company’s shares trade relative to their underlying NAV adequately reflects the company’s strong investment performance.

“In a determined effort to improve the rating of our shares we are today announcing measures which can significantly increase the scale of future distributions to shareholders through a combination of buybacks, dividends, and a new conditional tender offer alongside reduced management fees.

“Taken together these measures represent an appreciable proportion of the company’s value and our objective is to provide investors with a greater degree of confidence that they will be able to realise value from their investment whether from strong performance, increased cash distributions, reduced costs, increased liquidity or through a share tender at close to NAV per share depending on investment performance.”