After 17 years running CT Global Managed Portfolio, Peter Hewitt handed over to Paul Green and Adam Morris last June. The pair have reshaped the trust's Income and Growth portfolios, particularly the latter, and plan to reduce the number of holdings in each share class from 40 to around 30. Here, we look at the various trusts that they have bought and sold, and how their selections might help investors think about their own portfolio construction.
CT Global Managed Portfolio was listed in April 2008, just as the financial crisis was unfolding, but it can trace its roots to the F&C managed...
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TR Property (TRY) was launched in 1905 and has been a specialist property investor since 1982. It widened its focus to quoted European property companies in the early 2000s although it continues to invest in some physical property, too. Marcus Phayre-Mudge took over as lead manager in 2011 although his involvement with the trust dates back to the late 1990s. The trust's management firm has seen several changes and it is currently Columbia Threadneedle but there has been a continuity of personnel looking after the portfolio for the last three decades with Chris Turner acting as lead manager fro...
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UPDATE: Long-time manager Hamish Mair retired in May 2026, with Andrew Carnwath stepping up from deputy to lead manager.
CT Private Equity (ticker: CTPE) was set up in 1999 to take on around £100m of unquoted assets from the Martin Currie-managed Scottish Eastern Investment Trust. After a couple of share reorganisations, the management team moved from Martin Currie to F&C in 2005 (F&C was subsequently taken over by BMO and then Columbia Threadneedle). Hamish Mair has looked after the portfolio since 1999 through all its various incarnations. CTPE was one of many private equity trusts ...
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UPDATE: This trust was taken over by Starwood Capital for 96p per share.
Balanced Commercial Property Trust (ticker: BCPT) was launched in 2005 raising around £735m of equity and £230m of debt to buy a portfolio of around 30 UK commercial properties. Since its IPO, it has been run by Richard Kirby and it is now part of the Columbia Threadneedle stable. After paying a 6.0p per share dividend from 2006 through to 2019, albeit only partly covered by earnings, COVID led to a short-term dip in rents received so the payout was cut by more than half to 2.85p in 2020. As rental collection recovered, ...
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UPDATE (Oct 2026): In May 2024, Nish Patel took over the management of GCST from Peter Ewins, who retired. In the year to April 2024, GSCT returned +9.0% versus +11.3% for its benchmark, followed by -4.8% versus +0.8% to April 2025, and +21.0% versus +31.3% to April 2026. From May 2026, the trust's benchmark was changed to the MSCI ACWI Small Cap index, having been 80% MSCI ACWI ex UK Small Cap Index and 20% the Deutsche Numis UK Smaller Companies Index from May 2023 to April 2026, and 70%/30% from 2010 to 2023. Ongoing buybacks have reduced the share count from 516m to 409m over the last thre...
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UPDATE: Total NAV returns at F&C were -5% in 2022, +11% in 2023, +21% in 2024, +12% in 2025, and +12% in the first half of 2026. A 4-for-1 share split took place in early 2026. As of July 2026, the trust was marginally behind its benchmark over the past three and five years, at 56% versus 58% and 69% versus 73%, but sat in second and first place out of nine trusts over those periods in the AIC's Global sector.
F&C Investment Trust (ticker: FCIT) was the first investment company to be launched in 1868. Originally set up to invest in overseas government securities, over several decades ...
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