The past 50 years have seen one crisis after another —the high inflation of the 1970s, the recession of the 1990s, the global financial crisis of 2008 and, most recently, the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet through all this time The Global Smaller Companies Trust has delivered consecutive annual dividend increases.

In a stock market that’s recently been dominated by the US tech giants pioneering artificial intelligence, it’s easy to forget the attributes of smaller companies with strong businesses.