By Michael Kokalari CFA, chief economist, and Thai Thi Viet Trinh, senior economist.

For any income-focused investor moving from initial interest to active consideration of adding a stock to their portfolio, it is advisable to interrogate the extent to which the company’s strategy is supported by a durable and mathematically sound shareholder return framework.

Will they secure the dividend and fund buybacks?

An analysis for income-focused investors

For any major integrated energy company, the central challenge is clear: deliver competitive shareholder returns today while navigating the complexities of the global energy transition. bp has announced a "fundamental update" of its strategy—a decisive answer to this challenge that reflects decades of leadership experience and the imperative to deliver strong performance for shareholders.

Here’s the scorecard to watch

In this episode, our director of content, investment trusts Milosz Papst talks about Murray International. This is our first podcast focusing on this large, well-established fund, so he starts by providing an introduction to the company, before highlighting how it differs from its peers in the AIC Global Equity Income sector. Murray International has a notable below-market weight in the US and a meaningful allocation to emerging markets. Discussion then moves onto the investment process, which features Aberdeen’s focus on quality and value, and input from its regional investment teams. He then provides more information about the portfolio, which is broadly diversified by geography and sector. To bring some more colour, he gives some examples of recent transactions, where portfolio activity has been higher than average as Murray International’s managers have found increased opportunities in a volatile market. Attention then turns to the trust’s performance and the change in the company’s reference measure to what is a more relevant MSCI ACWI High Dividend Yield Index given Murray International’s emphasis on income and dividend growth. Papst then highlights the trust’s competitive fee structure and its valuation, before wrapping up with summary of the key takeaways of the Murray International story.

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About Uncovering Trusts: Uncovering Trusts is a podcast run by Edison analysts, which is released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

In this interview, Grant Foley, group CFO and COO of Braemar, delivers an investor update on the company’s strategic transformation from traditional ship broking to a diversified maritime services platform. He addresses the challenging H1 results, which saw revenues decline 16% amid rate pressures, while highlighting the resilience demonstrated by the securities division’s 9% growth. Foley outlines Braemar’s comprehensive 2030 strategic framework targeting £200m in revenues, a 15% operating margin and significant expansion of the regulated securities business, while addressing investor questions about market fragmentation and consolidation opportunities.

Braemar operates as a global maritime intermediary with 19 offices in 13 countries, facilitating cargo movement across all vessel types including tankers, specialised tankers, dry cargo and offshore vessels, alongside a substantial sale and purchase division. The company has strategically diversified beyond core ship broking into regulated securities products within the energy space. With the recent launch of a UK Organised Trading Facility (OTF) and regulatory expansion into Europe and Dubai planned for 2026, Braemar is positioned to capture value from the highly fragmented ship broking market. Led by experienced management focused on operational excellence, new geography expansion, strategic hiring and targeted M&A, Braemar offers investors diversified exposure to global trade flows with multiple growth vectors across both traditional and emerging maritime service lines.

In this interview, Martin Connaghan, who along with Samantha Fitzpatrick manages Murray International Trust (MYI), provides an introduction to the fund, including how it is differentiated versus its peers. He explains how stocks are selected within the broad global remit and how much consideration is given to the investment backdrop as the strategy is bottom-up focused. Connaghan then discusses the portfolio, including examples of recent transactions, along with the trust’s performance before reiterating the key messages about Murray International.

Murray International Trust aims to achieve an above-average dividend yield with long-term growth in dividends and capital ahead of inflation, by investing principally in global equities. Its performance is referenced against the MSCI ACWI High Dividend Yield Index.