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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UPDATE (Oct 2026): In February 2024, following an internal review, JEDT appointed Jon Ingram, Jack Featherby and Jules Bloch as Portfolio Managers, in place of Francesco Conte and Edward Greaves. In the year to March 2024, JEDT returned 6.8% versus +5.9% for its benchmark, followed by +2.9% versus +1.3% to March 2025 and +23.2% versus +17.5% to March 2026. Over the last three years, the trust has bought back nearly half its shares, including a 15% tender offer at a 2% discount in September 2024, reducing its share count from 157m to 89m, narrowing its discount from around 12% to 8%. A 15% cond...
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UPDATE: A revised version of this profile was published in June 2026.
European Smaller Companies (ticker: ESCT) was launched in 1990 and up until last year was known as TR European Growth. The trust was managed by Stephen Peak for its first two decades before Ollie Beckett took over in 2011. Over the last decade, it has comfortably beaten its benchmark and it has also been the best performer of the four European small-cap trusts. Compared to the other trusts in the sector, it is a little less growth-orientated and tends to invest in slightly smaller companies -- around half of its portfolio h...
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UPDATE: MTE has struggled to perform over the past five years, after interest rates rose in 2022 and investors soured on both small-caps and growth stocks. The trust gained 8% in the year to March 2022, lost 21% in 2023, gained 5% in 2024, lost 2% in 2025 and gained 2% in the year to March 2026. From April to mid-September 2026, it has returned 18%. Starting in October 2025, the trust is holding 5% tender offers at a 5% discount to NAV every six months, as well as continuing with ongoing buybacks.
Montanaro European Smaller Companies has been a strong performer, particularly since George Cook...
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