UPDATE: A revised version of this profile was published in June 2026.

European Smaller Companies (ticker: ESCT) was launched in 1990 and up until last year was known as TR European Growth. The trust was managed by Stephen Peak for its first two decades before Ollie Beckett took over in 2011. Over the last decade, it has comfortably beaten its benchmark and it has also been the best performer of the four European small-cap trusts. Compared to the other trusts in the sector, it is a little less growth-orientated and tends to invest in slightly smaller companies -- around half of its portfolio h...