Ruffer Investment lifts interim dividend as net asset value rises

Ruffer Investment Co Ltd on Wednesday said its exposure to gold and global equities helped lift net asset value in the six months that ended December 31, the first half of its financial year.

Ruffer Investment is an investment trust managed by London-based Ruffer LLP. It aims to not lose money in any 12-month period while generating returns meaningfully ahead of cash.

Ruffer Investment said net asset value per share was 304.76 pence on December 31, up 3.3% from 295.06p on June 30. Under IFRS accounting rules, NAV per share was 304.87p, up 3.7% from 293.93p.

Including dividends, total return for the first half was 4.9%, swung from negative 0.4% in the first half of financial 2025.

Ruffer Investment on Wednesday declared a 2.85p interim dividend, flat on a year before. This brought the full payout for the first half of of financial 2026 to 3.35p, up 8.1% from 3.10p a year before.

The company said NAV benefited from a 4.0% positive return from gold and other precious metals and a 3.5% positive return from global equities during the recent period. This more than offset a negative 2.4% performance by credit and derivatives and negative 0.9% for the Japanese yen.

Ruffer noted that holdings in credit and derivatives and the yen are part of the company’s ‘defensive spine’ against ‘real-world disruption’, such as markets are seeing at the moment, giving the trust an ‘all-weather’ appeal.

‘The company owns diverse growth assets, predominantly outside the US, for a scenario of benign reflation or resurgent inflation. It also retains significant protection against a sell-off if there were to be a growth slowdown or deflation,’ Ruffer said.

‘Current geopolitical tension or their resolution could impact the fragile balance between these outcomes.’

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