Although it suffered badly in the dot com bust, Henderson Smaller Companies has been a highly consistent performer since Neil Hermon was appointed lead manager in November 2002. Hermon has beaten his UK small-cap benchmark in 16 out of 18 financial years to date using a blend of quality and growth at a reasonable price. With assets of just over £1bn, this trust holds a widely diversified portfolio of over 100 companies with only a handful of positions greater than 2% and a fairly low portfolio turnover. It is a member of both the 2010 and Handbook Portfolios and also a trust I own personally. ...
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Fidelity Special Values has a great record of outperforming the UK market since it was launched in 1994, thanks to its value/contrarian discipline, a modest level of gearing, and its recent preference for small- and mid-caps. It also tends to invest around 15-20% of its assets outside the UK. Its popularity with retail investors means its shares have frequently traded at a small premium over the last four years. This trust was famously run by Anthony Bolton from November 1994 to December 2007 and by Sanjeev Shah from January 2008 to August 2012. Alex Wright has been the manager since September...
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Polar Capital Global Financials has had a very eventful two years. It was launched in 2013 with a seven-year fixed life but in April 2020 shareholders voted to extend it indefinitely although 39% opted to have their cash returned in a tender offer. The trust's shares have risen by over 70% since then and the number in issue has risen from 123m to 312m, thanks to regular share issuance, a C share offer, and a placing completed this past week. Polar Capital Global Financials is the only trust in the AIC's Financials sector and it has marginally outperformed its benchmark since its IPO. Financial...
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Launched just under five years ago, LXi REIT is one of the new breed of specialist property trusts. Rather than specialising in a single industry, it seeks out UK commercial properties that can be leased for at least 20 years until their first break clause and that have inflation-linked or fixed rental uplifts. Since its IPO, LXi's net asset value has compounded at 12.0% a year, well ahead of its 8% minimum target. While LXi did have to reduce its dividend a little due to the pandemic, it's rebounded strongly since and a 5% increase has been pencilled in for the year ending March 2023. On 20 J...
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Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust, often shortened to ASCoT, is the largest trust in the UK Smaller Companies sector with nearly £1.6bn in assets. Launched in 1990, it makes up the majority of funds managed by the UK small-cap specialist, Aberforth Partners. It's run by a team of six individuals, five of whom have only joined Aberforth in the last few years. Unlike many of the trusts in the sector, it has a distinct focus on value and it largely ignores AIM shares, rarely uses much gearing, and has a relatively low profile among private investors despite its large size. Its value bias may offe...
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Personal Assets Trust is designed with private investors in mind and famously says its "primary objective is to protect and increase (in that order) the value of shareholders’ funds per share over the long term". It became self-managed in 1990 and was run by Ian Rushbrook from that time until his death in 2008. Sebastian Lyon of Troy Asset Management has been the manager since 2009, employing a similar style to Rushbrook with a large proportion of assets in inflation-linked bonds, similar to the approach taken by the two other popular wealth preservation trusts -- namely Capital Gearing and Ru...
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Nick Train has managed Finsbury Growth & Income for 21 years and has handsomely beaten the UK market during that time with the trust's net assets growing from just under £100m to over £2bn, helped by lots of regular share issuance. As with other Lindsell Train funds, this trust holds a very concentrated portfolio of 'quality growth' shares that are seldom traded. However, 2021 was a difficult year for this style of investing and the discount at Finsbury Growth & Income has widened to 5%, its largest level for a decade, and its board has taken the rare step of buying back some shares. N...
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Worldwide Healthcare Trust is one of the oldest specialist equity trusts. It has been managed by OrbiMed Partners (and its predecessor firm) since it joined the London market in 1995 and it boasts a formidable long-term track record. As of 30 June 2021, it had returned 15.9% annualised compared to 12.2% from the MSCI World Healthcare Index. However, 2021 has been a more difficult year with biotech and Chinese holdings dragging down its performance. Nevertheless, with its shares regularly trading at a premium, it has managed to increase its share count by around 50% in the last few years, takin...
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Mid Wynd International is one of a select group of global trusts that has established a decent track record of beating world markets. While it was listed in 1981, it can trace its roots back to the late 1700s and a textile business set up by the Scott family who still own shares in the trust today. It has been managed by the Global Select team at Artemis, comprising of Simon Edelsten and Alex Illingworth, since 2014 and it runs a fairly diverse portfolio of 55-75 stocks, usually split over eight to ten different themes. Portfolio turnover is quite high, typically over 100%, but the trust's inc...
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HICL Infrastructure was one of the first alternative asset trusts to list on the London market back in 2006 so it provides a useful reference point for how many of the newer trusts in this space might mature. HICL deliberately takes a low-risk approach, investing mostly in infrastructure assets with Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) deals, and its future returns should be highly correlated to inflation. In the last few years, it's also moved a little into demand-based assets (e.g. toll roads) and regulated utility companies. However, after many years of decent dividend growth, its payout has b...
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