Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust heads into a pivotal session on Thursday, when its shares will trade without the latest dividend entitlement. The cut-off follows a flurry of corporate activity, including a £14m share buyback executed at a notable discount to net asset value. For holders of the £15.8bn trust, the twin events underscore management’s commitment to narrowing the gap between market price and underlying value.
Costing roughly £14m, the buyback of 1 million shares on 10 June was priced at 1,413.91p, comfortably below the most recently published fair cum-NAV of 1,470.32p on 9 June. That discount of 2.9% is a sweet spot for the board, which has made clear it will continue to repurchase stock when imbalances between supply and demand emerge. The shares bought now sit in treasury, raising the total there to 368.2 million, while roughly 1.12 billion remain in circulation. A fresh authority to buy back up to 14.99% of outstanding shares is set to be voted on at the forthcoming annual general meeting, with the condition that any purchases only take place below NAV.
The ex-dividend date adds a short-term timing wrinkle. Investors wanting the payout must have held the stock before Thursday’s open. At current levels around 16.82 euros, the share price has slipped slightly on the day and has lost roughly 6% over the past week. Yet the longer-term picture remains robust: the stock has rallied about 21% since the start of 2026 and sits just above its 50-day moving average of 16.74 euros. The 52-week high of 19.50 euros, struck in late May, is still 14% away, signalling room to run if sentiment improves.
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Beyond the mechanics of the buyback and dividend calendar, attention remains fixed on the trust’s heavy exposure to unlisted growth companies. SpaceX alone accounts for nearly 18% of the portfolio, while Anthropic, Stripe and Revolut are also major holdings. Any sustained rise in interest rates would pressure the valuations of these private technology giants, directly dragging down the trust’s net asset value. With a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.1, the market is already pricing in some caution — but a sharp correction in private-market multiples could test the discount-control strategy further.
The buyback on 10 June is not a one-off emergency measure. It is part of a permanent toolkit that the board aims to renew at the AGM. So long as the discount persists, investors should expect further purchases. Should the gap to NAV begin to close, this week’s transaction will stand as proof that Scottish Mortgage is willing to act decisively when the arithmetic works in shareholders’ favour.
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