First Interim Dividend

ABERDEEN STANDARD EQUITY INCOME TRUST PLC

Legal Entity Identifier (LEI): 21380015XPT7BZISSQ74

5 February 2021

Declaration of Interim Dividends

The Board announces that the first interim dividend for the year ending 30 September 2021 of 5.2 pence per Ordinary Share will be payable on 26 March 2021 to Shareholders on the register on 5 March 2021. 

In addition to the above, the Board's intention is that the second and third interim dividends will also each be 5.2 pence per Ordinary Share, payable in June and September 2021 respectively, and that the fourth interim dividend, which will be paid in December 2021, will be at least 5.1 pence per Ordinary Share.  The Board expects that the aggregate dividend payment will exceed the forecast earnings in the current year and will, therefore, involve funding from the Company's revenue reserve, which currently amounts to 12.9 pence per Ordinary Share.

The Chairman, Mark White, commented that "the Board considered that shareholders would appreciate clarity on the dividend prospects of the Company at a time when other sources of income have dried up. The plan to pay 20.7 pence per Ordinary Share in the current year will extend the Company's track record to 21 years of consecutive dividend growth."

The proposed 2021 dividend timetable is as follows:-

For further information please contact:-

Paul Evitt

Aberdeen Asset Management PLC

Company Secretary

Tel: 0131 372 2200