Artemis UK Future Leaders (AFL) is the new name for Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies, after Mark Niznik and William Tamworth of Artemis took over running its portfolio in March 2025, ending Invesco's three decades in charge. The trust had a decent long-term record under Invesco (Niznik was also its manager from 1994 to 2002), but its performance tailed off in the last few years. Although it is still early days for Artemis, the trust's struggles have continued, with a 0% return over the year to April 2026 versus +16% for its benchmark, with performance hit by losses in consumer discretion...
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Aberforth Geared Value & Income Trust (ticker: AGVI) is the fifth in a succession of fixed-life trusts that have run alongside the much larger Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust (ticker: ASL). The portfolios held by the two trusts are similar, although not identical, both having a strong focus on the value end of the UK small-cap market, and they are managed by the same group of individuals. Like its two immediate predecessors, AGVI utilises zero dividend preference shares to offer a highly geared alternative to the main Aberforth trust, providing potential additional upside if UK small-cap...
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Onward Opportunities (ticker: ONWD) was launched in March 2023, raising £12.75m at 100p per share. It is managed by Lawrence Hulse, who worked alongside both Richard Staveley and Ken Wotton at Gresham House before deciding to set up this trust with Dowgate Capital. ONWD invests in UK-listed companies valued at up to £250m, but it concentrates on those worth £100m or less. Like Rockwood Strategic, Strategic Equity Capital, and Odyssean, it uses what is termed a private-equity approach, taking significant stakes in 15-25 underperforming businesses where it believes it can unlock value over a 3-5...
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Henderson Smaller Companies (ticker: HSL) was launched in 1887. It has been a small-cap trust since 1982, but only entirely focused on UK small-caps since 1999. After a difficult period for HSL, Neil Hermon was appointed lead manager in November 2002, and he refocused its portfolio using a growth at a reasonable price (GARP) investing style. He went on to outperform his benchmark in 16 out of 22 years, with an annualised NAV return of 12.1% and an excess return of 1.7 percentage points per year, assisted by an average gearing level of some 10%. Hermon retired last month, and Indriatti van Hien...
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Montanaro UK Smaller Companies (MTU) was launched in 1995, and for all but five years from 2011 to 2016, it has been managed by Charles Montanaro, a keen anthropologist, who recently turned 70. MTU owns a fairly concentrated portfolio of "well-managed, focused, high-quality, growing companies bought at sensible valuations." Like many quality-style small-cap trusts, performance has lagged since 2021. However, since its IPO, NAV returns have been around 7.5% a year, around one percentage point a year better than its benchmark. MTU switched to a 1.0% per quarter enhanced dividend policy in 2018, ...
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UPDATE (Oct 2026): In July 2026, RMMC said that George Ensor, its lead manager, was resigning from Liontrust, which had just completed the acquisition of its investment management firm, River Global. As a result, the board said it was assessing its options while remaining "focused on maintaining continuity in the management of the portfolio and minimising disruption to the Company's investment strategy." In September 2026, it was announced that Ensor and his colleague, Mayan Uthayakuma, were joining Jupiter to head up its UK small-cap team. In the year to September 2025, RMMC's NAV return was ...
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Rockwood Strategic (RKW) joined the London market in 1999 as New Media Spark when it was largely invested in unquoted technology businesses. After a realisation process that took several years, it appointed Gresham House as its management firm in 2015, renamed itself Gresham House Strategic, and adopted a 'public equity' approach that was focused on 10-15 UK-listed small-cap stocks valued below £250m. The trust performed reasonably for the next few years but was sub-scale and traded at a big discount. Richard Staveley joined as lead manager in September 2019 but resigned from Gresham House in ...
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UPDATE: On 18 September 2026, having bought back more than half its shares over the previous five years, AUSC said it planned to combine with JPMorgan UK Small Cap Growth & Income (JUGI). The deal is expected to complete around the end of 2026, with AUSC shareholders being offered a cash exit at a 2% discount for up to 35% of its shares.
abrdn UK Smaller Companies Growth (ticker: AUSC) was launched in 1993 and initially run by Edinburgh Fund Managers. In 2003, after a period of poor performance, it switched its management firm to Standard Life, which is now part of abrdn. Harry Nimmo look...
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Oryx International Growth (OIG) was launched in 1995 and has been managed throughout by Harwood Capital's Christoper Mills, who also runs North Atlantic Smaller Companies and is involved with both Odyssean and Rockwood Strategic. Mills is 71 and shows little indication that he intends to retire anytime soon but his son, Nick Mills, aged 34, is also a named manager on this trust. Despite its name, Oryx is focused on UK smaller companies and runs a portfolio of around 40 to 60 positions that include a handful of unquoted holdings. Mills takes a very hands-on approach, often taking large stakes i...
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UPDATE: In early 2026, BlackRock Smaller Companies merged with its sister fund, BlackRock Throgmorton. It has switched to paying quarterly dividends and will offer triennial, performance-related 100% tender offers.
BlackRock Smaller Companies (BRSC) dates back to 1906 and has long been a UK small-cap specialist. It was run by 3i for many years before its manager, Mike Prentis, and its management contract was moved to Merrill Lynch in 2005 after 3i decided to stop managing public equity funds. Merrill Lynch Investment Management soon became part of BlackRock and Prentis went on to deliver 16 ...
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