Exclusive to subscribers to the Money Makers Circle Contents - What's new this week - Latest trust profile - Trust and market news - Recent issuance and buybacks - Good reads - Videos and other recordings - Trust price and NAV performance - Z-scores - Investment Trusts Handbook - Appendices
What's new this week In the latest episode of the podcast, I talk to Ben Conway, head of fund management at Hawksmoor Fund Management, about the health of the investment trust industry. We discuss whether the sector has done enough to see off the challenges of the last four years, the recent amendments to ...
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Exclusive to subscribers to the Money Makers Circle Contents - What's new this week - Latest trust profile - Trust and market news - Recent issuance and buybacks - Good reads - Videos and other recordings - Trust price and NAV performance - Z-scores - Investment Trusts Handbook - Appendices
What's new this week Mighty oaks and little acorns? I noted in the last edition of the Investment Trusts Handbook that we cannot finally say that the supply and demand crisis in the investment trust sector has been fully resolved until we start to see a new wave of trusts coming to market to replenish and ...
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Exclusive to subscribers to the Money Makers Circle Contents - What's new this week - Latest trust profile - Trust and market news - Recent issuance and buybacks - Good reads - Videos and other recordings - Trust price and NAV performance - Z-scores - Investment Trusts Handbook - Appendices
What's new this week The latest episode of the podcast features my pre-recorded conversation with Evy Hambro, the long-serving manager of BlackRock World Mining (BRWM). It is highly topical as supplies of commodities and precious metals have been central to the tariff wars, higher than hoped for inflation ...
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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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UPDATE: In March 2026, it was announced that Geiger Counter's co-managers Keith Watson and Robert Crayfourd were resigning from CQS/Manulife; they subsequently joined Tufton Asset Management. Geiger Counter served 12 months' protective notice on CQS when Watson and Crayfourd resigned, and appointed Diana Racanelli and Craig Bethune of CQS to manage its portfolio while it considers its longer-term options. In October 2026, the trust's board said the protection notice was being withdrawn, with the mandate remaining with CQS but with the management fee being reduced from 1.3875% to 1.0% with imme...
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UPDATE: In July 2025, the trust bought out Saba in a tender offer at a price of 208.33p that saw its share count fall by 46%. That proved to be poorly timed from Saba's viewpoint, as the trust's share price had risen to £3 by the time the tender price was set on 30 September, and then rose further to £4 in early 2026. Keith Watson and Robert Crayfourd resigned from CQS in March 2026 and moved to Tufton Asset Management. The trust subsequently moved its management contract to Tufton, effective mid-September 2026, and changed its name from CQS Natural Resources Growth & Income to City Natura...
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UPDATE (Oct 2026): In 2023, BRWM returned -6.2% versus +2.4% for its benchmark, followed by -10.7% versus -9.9% in 2024, +74.2% versus +64.2% in 2025, and +7.2% versus +4.7% in the six months to June 2026. The annual dividend was 40p in 2022, 33.5p in 2023, 23p in 2024, and 24p in 2025.
BlackRock World Mining (ticker: BRWM) was launched in 1993 making it the oldest sector-specialised equity trust. It has been managed by Evy Hambro since 2000 with Olivia Markham joining him as co-manager in 2015. From its IPO up to the end of 2022, BRWM had produced an annualised return of 9.8%, around half of...
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UPDATE: Shareholders of RSE approved a wind-down proposal in August 2025, and it has since sold the majority of its investments, returning £190m to investors in October 2025 and a further £30m in April 2026. It had net assets of £58m as at June 2026.
Riverstone Energy (ticker: RSE) was launched in 2013 when it raised a chunky £760m at £10 per share. Its original aim was to invest exclusively in the global energy industry with a focus on the exploration, production, and midstream sub-sectors. Within a couple of years, RSE had built up a concentrated portfolio of around a dozen private investme...
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UPDATE (Sep 2026): BERI returned -11.8% in the year to November 2023, +15.3% versus +0.5% for its new blended benchmark in the year to November 2024, and +23.5% versus +17.9% in the year to November 2025. The six months to May 2026 saw BERI return +26.7%, but its benchmark did even better with +36.8%. The new benchmark, officially used from August 2023, is a blended comparator index comprised of three indices – the MSCI ACWI Select Metals & Mining Producers Ex Gold and Silver IM (Mining), the MSCI World Energy Index (Traditional Energy) and S&P Global Clean Energy Transition Index (Ene...
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Commodities for the long run? The latest Global Investment Returns Yearbook from the London Business School academics Dimson, Marsh and Staunton, out this week, has some important insights into the behaviour of commodities as an asset class, which, they point out, have some potentially invaluable diversification and inflation-hedging properties. Here are some of their conclusions on this topic, based on their extensive historical data set which stretches back to the nineteenth century:
Individual physical/spot commodities have provided low long-run returns since 1900 with an average annuali...
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