Ruffer Investment Company (RICA) was launched in 2004, and it is one of a handful of wealth-preservation trusts that sit within the AIC's Flexible sector. It follows the Ruffer investment approach of aiming to "generate consistent positive returns, however financial markets are performing." To date, RICA has largely succeeded in doing that, with just a handful of negative financial years, all of which resulted in losses of less than 3%. The Ruffer strategy has also stayed ahead of its two comparators over the last three decades, being the FTSE All-Share and twice the UK bank rate. RICA tends t...
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HarbourVest Global Private Equity was launched in 2007 and is the largest fund-of-funds private equity trust with gross assets of around £3.5bn and a market cap of £2.4bn. Its NAV returns since inception are just over 10% a year, around two percentage points ahead of global markets, making it one of the best long-term performers in its sector. Like many private equity trusts, however, it has long traded at a wide discount. After doing very little in the way of discount control for many years, it has announced a range of measures since 2022, including allocating 30% of distributions received to...
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Utilico Emerging Markets (UEM) was launched in July 2005 to invest in utilities and infrastructure stocks that operate in emerging markets. It performed strongly in the run-up to the global financial crisis, and bulked up with two large fundraises. Its performance since 2014 has been more muted, but NAV returns since inception are a respectable 9.5% a year, just ahead of the 9.2% year produced by the broader MSCI Emerging Markets index. UEM's discount widened steadily from 2014 onwards, and in May 2025, Saba Capital appeared on the register with a 6% stake. In August 2025, UEM introduced a fiv...
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Ashoka India Equity (ticker: AIE) joined the London market in July 2018, raising a modest £46m at 100p per share. It has been the best performer of the four Indian trusts since it was launched, and this has led to it frequently trading at a premium rating. Ongoing regular issuance has seen its share count rise from 46m to 169m and its net assets increase nearly tenfold to £440m. AIE also offers an uncapped annual redemption facility, which has so far seen very modest take-up. The highly-rated Indian market has struggled in the last couple of years, though, and so AIE currently trades at a 5% d...
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TwentyFour Select Monthly Income (SMIF) is the smaller of two debt trusts run by TwentyFour Asset Management and is unique in the sector in paying monthly dividends. It was launched in March 2014, raising just over £100m and setting an annualised total return target of between 8 and 10%. It usually sets a 6.0p annual dividend target, paying out 0.5p per month throughout the year, with a larger twelfth payment to reflect any additional net income it has received. The trust holds quarterly tender offers at a 2% discount, but it has nearly always traded at a premium, so it has been a regular issu...
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AVI Global Trust (ticker: AGT) was founded in 1889 and has been managed by Asset Value Investors (AVI) for the last four decades, over which time it has returned 11.3% per year. Joe Bauernfreund has acted as its lead manager since 2015. AGT seeks to buy quality companies trading at a discount to their net assets, and it holds a concentrated portfolio of closed-ended funds and European/Asian family-run holding companies, recently increasing its exposure towards Korea. Its portfolio looks very different from most other global trusts, tilted away from the US and with a much smaller average market...
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3i Infrastructure (3IN) is the best-performing of the veteran infrastructure trusts, having returned 11% a year on a share price total return basis since its 2007 IPO, and just over 12% on an NAV basis, both well ahead of its 8-10% annual return target. Initially, 3IN focused on lower-risk core infrastructure assets, but around a decade ago, it began to shift towards higher-risk/higher-return core plus infrastructure. It has a very concentrated portfolio, typically around 10-12 holdings, spanning a range of infrastructure businesses, including data centres, subsea cables, cold storage and ster...
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Caledonia Investments (ticker: CLDN) is a self-managed trust whose story dates back to the 1870s, when the Cayzer family established a shipping business called the Clan Line. After the shipping business was sold off during the 1970s and 1980s, Caledonia continued as the Cayzer family's investment vehicle. It only became an investment trust in 2003, soon afterwards buying out some dissatisfied family members. The Cayzers remain the dominant holders, with the family owning around 50% of the trust's shares; this limits its ability to do significant buybacks, and CLDN's discount has widened from a...
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Aberdeen Equity Income (AEI) was launched in 1991. It was initially managed by Morgan Grenfell/Deutsche Bank, but has been part of the Standard Life/Aberdeen stable since 2005, with Thomas Moore acting as its lead manager since late 2011. AEI has typically been one of the higher-yielding trusts in the UK Equity Income sector, and it is classed as a Dividend Hero by the AIC. Since Moore was appointed, it has returned around 8.3% a year in NAV terms, versus 8.9% a year for the All-Share. In early 2026, AEI completed a merger with its Aberdeen stablemate, Shires Income, with Iain Pyle becoming co...
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3i Group (ticker: III) was founded in 1945 as the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation to provide funds for smaller UK companies. It joined the London market in 1994, but its shareholders endured a rocky first fifteen years, with strong gains in the TMT boom and in the run-up to the financial crisis, followed in both cases by sharp drawdowns. A rescue rights issue in 2009 put 3i's finances on a firmer footing. Then, in 2012, Simon Borrows was appointed as its CEO, and he streamlined both the business and its investment approach. In 2011, 3i invested in a Dutch discount retailer called...
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