Artemis UK Future Leaders (AFL) is the new name for Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies, after Mark Niznik and William Tamworth of Artemis took over running its portfolio in March 2025, ending Invesco's three decades in charge. The trust had a decent long-term record under Invesco (Niznik was also its manager from 1994 to 2002), but its performance tailed off in the last few years. Although it is still early days for Artemis, the trust's struggles have continued, with a 0% return over the year to April 2026 versus +16% for its benchmark, with performance hit by losses in consumer discretion...
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European Smaller Companies (ticker: ESCT) was launched in 1990 and, until a few years ago, was known as TR European Growth. This trust was managed by Stephen Peak for its first two decades, with Ollie Beckett taking over in 2011, so it has only had two lead managers in 36 years. ESCT has returned about 12.5% per annum since inception, but performance under Peak was considerably more volatile, with bumper returns in the 1990s followed by a torrid decade in the 2000s. Over the last decade, its returns have been somewhat more consistent, and it has beaten its benchmark by about 1.5 percentage poi...
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The infrastructure sector has been one of many within the wider alternatives space to suffer from wide discounts of late. However, with a more mature and diversified asset base, the damage has been less severe than in other sectors, such as renewable energy, and there have been some early signs of a sustained recovery in recent months. Here, we look at the ratings of the various trusts and the (fairly limited) measures they have taken to address their discounts.
HICL, the first listed infrastructure trust, was launched in March 2006, so the infrastructure sector now has a twenty-year record ...
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Baker Steel Resources (BSRT) was listed in 2010 and holds a concentrated global portfolio of both listed and unlisted smaller mining companies. The trust had a difficult start, due to the slump in commodities during the 2010s, and shareholders were underwater from 2012 until just a few months ago, but its recent performance has been much more impressive. Its share price has nearly quadrupled from a low of 34p in late 2023, thanks to the surge in gold and silver prices plus gains from holdings like Tungsten West and Blue Moon, taking its market cap to £135m. BSRT has typically traded at a wide ...
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Invesco Asia Dragon (IAD) was listed in 1995 and was a fairly small trust up until early 2025, when what was then called Invesco Asia took over the much larger Asia Dragon. IAD is managed by Fiona Yang, who took on the lead role from Ian Hargreaves in May 2024, with Hargreaves remaining as co-manager. This trust holds a fairly concentrated portfolio of about 60 stocks, with about 50% in its top 10. Since management of the trust was moved back to Invesco's Henley office in 2004, IAD has built up an impressive performance record of around 13.5% a year, some two percentage points a year ahead of ...
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Tetragon Financial Group (TFG) is one of the oddities of the investment trust sector. Set up by the founders of a hedge fund called Polygon, it went public on Euronext in 2007 at $10 per share, listing on the London market in 2015, and introducing a separate sterling quote in 2018. Originally an investor in debt instruments called CLOs, its business model has evolved to focus on investments in private equity firms and the funds they manage, plus direct private investments and listed equities. Governance is a key concern here as management controls the trust's 10 voting shares, and all its list...
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Cordiant Digital Infrastructure (CORD) was listed in early 2021 and has spent around £800m assembling a highly concentrated portfolio of six assets, with 85% of the portfolio by value attributable to just two holdings: Emitel, a Polish digital broadcaster and telecoms infrastructure operator, and CRA, a Czech digital infrastructure platform. Over its first five years, CORD returned around 11% a year on a NAV basis, ahead of its 9% target. It has a progressive dividend policy, targeting 4.35p for the year ending March 2026, while its payout is covered 1.8 times by funds from operations. The rat...
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JPMorgan Claverhouse (JCH) was set up in 1963 and is a UK Equity Income trust with a market capitalisation of about £500m. Its dividend yield is 4.0%, a little higher than the sector average, and it sits in eighth position in the AIC's Dividend Heroes list with a 53-year record of increasing its payout. JCH is managed by the team of Anthony Lynch, Katen Patel, and Callum Abbot. Lynch and Patel were appointed in July 2024, while Abbot has been involved since 2018. JCH aims to hold between 60 and 80 companies and benchmarks itself against the FTSE All-Share with various weighting restrictions on...
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An increasing number of equity trusts are choosing to fix their dividends at a set proportion of their NAV, commonly referred to as an enhanced dividend, rather than the more traditional approach of basing their payout on the income they receive each year. A rule change in 2012 paved the way for this trend, although it took a few more years before it became more widely adopted. The last eighteen months or so have seen enhanced dividends surge in popularity, with 12 more trusts announcing such policies. It remains a divisive topic, with critics saying it adds costs and is essentially a trust ju...
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Patria Private Equity (PPET), previously known as Standard Life Private Equity and abrdn Private Equity Opportunities, celebrates its 25th anniversary as a listed company next month. Since its inception, its annualised NAV return is 10.9% versus 6.1% for the FTSE All-Share, while its annualised share price return has been 9.6%. PPET concentrates on European mid-market deals where entry valuations are between £100m and £1bn. It has nearly 700 underlying investments, working with many different private equity managers, but the majority of its holdings are with 17 core partners. Direct investment...
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