TR Property (TRY) aims to generate total returns from investing in the equity of UK and European listed property companies. It also owns a small portfolio of direct commercial property in the UK. Within the total return objective, the trust’s dividend is an important consideration for the board and managers. TRY’s management team is made up of commercial property specialists who invest in property securities across Europe. Underpinning the investment process is a desire to invest with management teams who have delivered successfully through cycles. Manager Marcus Phayre-Mudge also takes a top down view on economies and economic prospects believing this is the fundamental driver of property and rental values. The big top down (and successful) call that Marcus took after the Brexit referendum was that traditional UK property sectors would be ‘dead water’, and so he has re-allocated overseas, but also shifted focus in the UK to niches such as student property, medical property and long-lease properties. A unique feature of TRY is that it also owns a commercial property portfolio directly. In the managers’ view, this gives them a significant edge over peers, given the market intelligence that owning a direct property portfolio gives when evaluating listed property companies, and meeting with other managers. At 14%, gearing is broadly in line with the level employed over the last five years. It is worth noting that given the underlying gearing of the property companies that TRY owns, the ‘look-through’ gearing level (loan to total value), is in the order of 42% according to the managers, in-line with the benchmark. TRY has done well relative to the benchmark, having outperformed in ten out of the past 11 financial years. As we discuss in the Portfolio section, the company has exactly the same currency exposure as the benchmark, and so all of this outperformance has come through stock picking or asset allocation. Currently, the historic dividend yield on the shares is 3.2%. While not in the formal objective, we understand that the board sets a lot of store by the managers’ ability to continue to grow the dividend. Since the 2009 financial year the company has paid a covered dividend in all but two years and grown the dividend by a compound annual growth rate of 8.9%.