Baillie Gifford UK Growth (BGUK) was managed by Schroders from its IPO in 1994 until June 2018, during which time it was known as Schroder UK Growth. The trust's directors appointed Baillie Gifford after a prolonged period of underperformance and a persistent discount. Although returns improved for a few years, the switch away from growth stocks in 2022 has seen BGUK underperform its benchmark in each of the last five financial years. A 100% performance-related tender offer at a 2% discount has been promised, measured over the five years to April 2029, and an additional continuation vote is du...
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Saba Capital and the Baillie Gifford-run Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) are at loggerheads again, a year after the activist first tried to oust its directors and replace them with its preferred alternatives. This time, a lot of focus has been on EWI's stake in SpaceX, where it recently sold down a large chunk of its holding a few months before a large increase in the company's valuation. Here, we look at the history of SpaceX in the various Baillie Gifford trusts that have invested in it. At $800bn, SpaceX is the world's most highly valued private company, and it is rumoured to be targeting an IPO ...
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Baillie Gifford China Growth (ticker: BGCG) was launched in 1907, and was known as F&C Pacific from 1984 to 2005 and then Witan Pacific from 2005 to 2020, before deciding to ditch its wider regional brief to focus on Chinese stocks. Its share price soared for the first six months under Baillie Gifford, with high investor demand causing its shares to trade at a large premium. But Chinese regulatory crackdowns and sluggish economic growth caused a savage reversal and resulted in a share price drawdown of over 70% by the end of 2023. After three years of underperforming its benchmark, BGCG ou...
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Scottish American (ticker: SAIN), commonly abbreviated to SAINTS, was established in 1873 and is classified in the Global Equity Income sector. It has been managed by Baillie Gifford since 2004, but unlike most other Baillie Gifford funds, SAINTS looks for resilient income stocks rather than disruptive growth companies. What's more, around 10% of its portfolio consists of UK direct property holdings, with a similar amount of long-term debt providing structural gearing. SAINTS has raised its dividend for each of the last 51 years and hasn't cut its dividend since 1938. Although its current yiel...
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UPDATE: In April 2026, Joe Faraday succeeded Stephen Paice and Chris Davies as the trust's portfolio manager. The growth focus of the mandate is to continue "whilst aiming to deliver a more diversified portfolio that captures growth opportunities across a wider range of sectors."
Baillie Gifford European Growth (ticker: BGEU) was launched in 1972 as F&C Eurotrust. It was run by Foreign & Colonial up until early 2010, before Edinburgh Partners was appointed in its place, and the company became known as The European Investment Trust. It outperformed in the first part of the 2010s but th...
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Schiehallion (ticker: MNTN) was launched in 2019 when it raised $477m at $1.00 per share. It raised an additional $40m from regular issuance between June 2020 and March 2021, then a further $700m from a C share issue in April 2021. Baillie Gifford's Peter Singlehurst has been its lead manager since it joined the market. MNTN is a 'crossover' fund, meaning that it buys stakes in unquoted growth companies, but it is happy to keep holding should they become listed. To date, MNTN has invested in around 50 companies, several of which have had IPOs, and it currently has holdings in six of the world’...
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UPDATE: Saba, which still owns around 29% of USA's shares, is proposing that three new directors be added to the trust's board at its AGM on 23 October 2026. The directors are encouraging shareholders to vote against, saying that Saba had rejected a full cash exit at NAV less costs. USA's NAV return for the year ended May 2025 was 22.1% versus 7.2% for the S&P, and 31.0% for the year ended May 2026 versus 29.8% for the S&P, with outperformance helped by strong performance from its unlisted investments, especially SpaceX. The trust has also invested in both Anthropic and OpenAI.
Bailli...
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UPDATE: Brian Lum took over from Praveen Kumar as lead manager in May 2025.
Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon (BGS) was launched in 1985 to invest in Japanese smaller companies. It caught the tail end of the 1980s boom in Japanese stocks and then endured a volatile two decades as the bubble steadily deflated. In the twelve years following the financial crisis, BGS produced an astonishing 18-fold gain but since 2021 it has significantly underperformed its benchmark and its shares have more than halved as investors turned away from Baillie Gifford's distinctive style of growth investing. BGS traded ...
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UPDATE (Sep 2026): In April 2026, at the third attempt, Saba succeeded in ousting the directors of Edinburgh Worldwide, replacing them with its own preferred candidates. The new board is consulting with shareholders and planning a liquidity opportunity close to NAV, assuming it can undertake an orderly realisation of its holding in SpaceX, which has boosted its returns over the last couple of years. EWI returned 12.8% in the year to October 2024, versus 21.6% for its benchmark, and 29.7% in the year to October 2025, versus 12.8% for its benchmark. Returns for the six months to April 2026 were ...
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UPDATE: Scottish Mortgage has continued to bounce back since June 2024, with SpaceX becoming its largest holding, and its share price touching the level it hit in late 2021. The NAV total return for the year to March 2025 was 11%, followed by 27% for the year to March 2026. In early 2026, it asked shareholders to give it more flexibility regarding the level of its private investments, but this concern has since lessened due to the IPO of SpaceX.
Scottish Mortgage (ticker: SMT) was founded in 1909 and has been managed by Baillie Gifford throughout its existence. For the last several decades, i...
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