Murray Income Trust has announced a review which could see it drop fund manager Aberdeen Group, formerly abrdn.

The £931 million investment company, a member of the FTSE 250, is inviting rival managers to make proposals for taking it forward.

Murray has underperformed its benchmark for several years and is the second worst performing UK equity income trust out of 17 over both one year and five years. The UK equity-focused portfolio currently trades at a 10.3% discount.

It said its investment performance under Aberdeen had been below its expectations for some time.

After engaging with Aberdeen, “the board has concluded that it is now appropriate to undertake a wider strategic review”. Investec had been appointed to explore options, including “future investment management arrangements”, it said.

The wealth manager Rathbone is the biggest investor in Murray with a 9% stake. Other big holders are Charles Stanley and Close Brothers.

Aberdeen, which has been struggling to stem the outlow of funds for several years, has been running Murray for 25 years, since buying Murray Johnstone in 2000.

Saba, the activist New York hedge fund group that targeted seven investment trusts earlier this year, is thought to own around 1% of Murray. One option for Murray would be to launch a tender offer, enabling shareholders wanting an exit to do so at close to net asset value.

Emma Bird, head of investment trust research at Winterflood, said a merger could be “a plausible outcome”, particularly in a crowded sector where more than half of the trusts have market caps below £500m.

She pointed to the possibility of a combination with one of Aberdeen’s other UK equity income mandates – Aberdeen Equity Income, Dunedin Income Growth or Shires Income – all of which are smaller and trade on tighter discounts or small premiums.