Law Debenture Corporation (LWDB) was launched in 1889 and has a unique structure with around one-sixth of its £1.2bn of net assets attributable to a three-pronged professional services business, and the remainder consisting of a UK equity portfolio of around 150 stocks managed by James Henderson and Laura Foll of Janus Henderson. Backed by a range of long-term debentures at an average interest rate of 4%, its steady approach has resulted in it becoming the best-performing UK Equity Income trust of the past decade with an annualised NAV return of 8.8% versus 6.2% for the FTSE All-Share and at l...
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Henderson Opportunities (HOT) was launched in 1985 and initially held international small-cap stocks but with a strong UK focus. In 2005, it briefly switched its mandate to UK micro-caps before adopting its current UK all-cap approach in January 2007. HOT was been managed by James Henderson since 2007 with Laura Foll becoming co-manager in 2018 (the pair also manage Lowland and the equity portfolio of Law Debenture). HOT's portfolio consists of around 90 positions but there remains a strong bias towards small-caps with around two-thirds of the portfolio invested outside of the FTSE 100. Perfor...
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In this week’s edition of the Weekly Investment Trust Podcast, Jonathan Davis remains on holiday, so Stuart Watson fills in once again, providing the latest news and events from the past week. Despite the break, Jonathan still had the opportunity to speak with Denis Jackson and Laura Foll from Law Debenture (LWDB), the UK equity income trust.
The podcast itself will take a short break next week, but is scheduled to return with the next edition on Saturday 17 August 2024.
You can listen to this week’s podcast in full on the audio players below. Alternatively, you can subscribe and download it on most podcast channels including Soundcloud, Apple, Spotify, the Money Makers YouTube channel, and others. We are grateful for the support of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, which enables us to keep the podcast free.
If you enjoy the weekly podcast, you may also find value in joining The Money Makers Circle. This is a membership scheme that offers subscribers an opportunity to receive additional premium content, including interviews, investment trust performance data, market/portfolio reviews and regular extracts from the editor’s notebook. Due to the August break there is no new fund profile available this week, but you can look forward to future profiles including Oryx International Growth (OIG) and the Edinburgh Investment Trust (EDIN). Look out for the latest edition of our new expanded weekly subscriber email which summarises Jonathan’s latest thoughts and includes a comprehensive summary of all the latest news. The content of that email is also available for subscribers via the website. A subscription costs £12 a month, or £120 for one year with a two week free trial.

0:38:03 – Close
Trusts mentioned in this week’s podcast (with tickers) include:
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We are an editorially independent research and publishing venture committed to providing high-quality investment information and resources. You can sign up below to be notified about the latest podcasts by email as soon as they become available. Please note that the podcasts should not be regarded as personal financial advice, but are provided for information and background only. We are very grateful for your continued support and the enthusiastic response to our over 220 podcasts in the over four years since launch.
Disclosures about the editor’s personal holdings of investment trusts can be found here. Our podcasts are also available on the Association of Investment Companies website (www.theaic.co.uk) and Doceo (doceo.tv). The producer of the podcasts is the brilliant Ben Gamblin – more details on him here.
In the second part of the latest edition of the Weekly Investment Trust Podcast (released on Saturday 17 February), Jonathan Davis, editor of the Investment Trusts Handbook, speaks to Laura Foll, co-manager to a number of Henderson trusts.
You can listen to this week’s podcast in full on the audio players below. Alternatively, you can subscribe and download it on most podcast channels including Soundcloud, Apple, Spotify, Google, and others, including now the Money Makers YouTube channel. We are grateful for the support of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, which enables us to keep the podcast free.
If you enjoy the weekly podcast, you may also find value in joining The Money Makers Circle. This is a membership scheme that offers subscribers an opportunity to receive additional premium content, including interviews, investment trust performance data, market/portfolio reviews and regular extracts from the editor’s notebook. This week, as well as the usual features, the Circle features a profile of J.P.Morgan Indian (JII). Future profiles include MIGO Opportunities (MIGO) and the Bankers Investment Trust (BNKR). Remember to look out for the latest edition of our new expanded weekly subscriber email which summarises Jonathan’s latest thoughts along with a new list of his favourite funds, and includes all the regular features available in the Circle. The content of that email is also available for subscribers via the website. A subscription costs £8 a month, or a modest £2 a week.

About Money Makers
We are an editorially independent research and publishing venture committed to providing high-quality investment information and resources. You can sign up below to be notified about the latest podcasts by email as soon as they become available. Please note that the podcasts should not be regarded as personal financial advice, but are provided for information and background only. We are very grateful for your continued support and the enthusiastic response to our nearly 200 podcasts in the almost four years since launch.
Disclosures about the editor’s personal holdings of investment trusts can be found here. Our podcasts are also available on the Association of Investment Companies website (www.theaic.co.uk) and Doceo (doceo.tv). The producer of the podcasts is the brilliant Ben Gamblin – more details on him here.
Lowland Investment Company (ticker: LWI) was launched in 1963 with the dual mandate of providing income and capital growth by investing in a wide range of UK companies. James Henderson has managed this trust since 1990 and Laura Foll was appointed as co-manager in 2016. Henderson and Foll also manage two other UK-focused trusts, Law Debenture and Henderson Opportunities, plus an open-ended fund. Lowland adopts a value approach but unlike most other UK Equity Income vehicles, it only invests between a third and a half of its portfolio in FTSE 100 companies. This has hampered its recent performa...
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Law Debenture's unique combination of a professional services business and a UK-focused portfolio with a strong value bias enabled it to navigate 2020 with relative ease. This trust was founded in 1889, making it one of the oldest in the UK, and it boasts a strong performance record over the last few decades plus a 42-year stretch of either maintaining or increasing its dividend.
If Law Debenture didn't exist, it seems highly unlikely that someone would try and create it from scratch. But this trust has proved its strength in recent years and seems to have a renewed sense of purpose since 201...
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For premium subscribers we do regular interviews with fund managers and analysts about current market conditions and funds and markets (occasionally shares) that we invest in. The latest one is with Laura Foll, co-manager with James Henderson of two listed investment trusts, Lowland and Henderson Opportunities Trust. They are also jointly responsible for the equity portfolio of the distinctive mixed asset trust Law Debenture. Laura has worked for Janus Henderson, the management company of all three trusts, for the past 12 years.
Lowland (ticker LWI) sits in the UK Equity Income sector while...
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