Uncovering Trusts by Edison Group

In this episode, our director of content for investment companies, Milosz Papst, talks about Finsbury Growth & Income Trust (FGT), a UK Equity Income trust celebrating its centenary in 2026. He introduces the trust and its managers’ long-term, high-conviction approach – a concentrated portfolio of typically around 20 UK-listed holdings, managed by Nick Train and Madeline Wright at Lindsell Train. Milosz outlines the portfolio’s three broad themes: data, software and platform companies (the ‘digital winners’), premium and luxury consumer brands, and stock market proxies. He discusses the investment case behind the digital winners – eight UK-listed businesses including LSEG, Experian, RELX, Sage and Rightmove. Train believes their constantly replenishing proprietary data assets position these companies as beneficiaries, rather than casualties, of the AI revolution. Milosz also covers developments in the consumer brand holdings, including Diageo, Burberry and Unilever, and changes to the trust’s asset management exposure following the takeovers of Hargreaves Lansdown and Schroders.

Milosz then addresses FGT’s recent performance, with the trust having underperformed its UK All-Share benchmark for five consecutive calendar years, and a NAV total return of 1.2% over five years to end March 2026 versus 69.3% for the index, set against a cumulative NAV total return of 551.4% since Lindsell Train’s appointment in December 2000. He concludes by covering the board’s proactive response to underperformance, including a continuation vote at the January 2026 AGM, a management fee reduction and an active share buyback programme. Milosz also touches on the trust’s progressive dividend policy, a current discount of around 7% to NAV, and an ongoing charges ratio of 0.6%.

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About ‘Uncovering Trusts’

'Uncovering Trusts': is a podcast run by Edison analysts released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers around 50 investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

In this episode, our director of content, investment trusts, Milosz Papst, talks about Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust (USA), a closed-end investment company listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, focused on delivering long-term capital growth through US equities. He covers the key takeaways from Edison’s research note on USA, including the trust’s strong recent performance, a NAV total return of 20.1% in the 12 months to end March 2026, well ahead of its S&P 500 benchmark. He explains the managers’ distinctive investment philosophy of identifying ‘outlier’ businesses with virtually unbounded upside potential, and the trust’s significant allocation to late-stage private companies, which currently stands at around 44% of total assets. Finally, he discusses the trust’s portfolio construction, its competitive ongoing charge of 0.72% and the key risks investors should consider.

***********************************************************

About ‘Uncovering Trusts’

'Uncovering Trusts': is a podcast run by Edison analysts released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers around 50 investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

In this episode, our director of content for investment companies, Milosz Papst, talks about Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (SMT), the UK’s largest investment trust and one of the most widely recognised names in the AIC Global sector. He introduces the trust and its managers’ philosophy of identifying and holding the world’s most exceptional growth companies, before discussing SMT’s distinctive private company exposure – including the April 2026 shareholder vote to expand the investment limit – and key portfolio holdings such as ByteDance, Mercado Libre and SpaceX, which now represents around 19% of total assets following a March 2026 revaluation. Milosz also covers recent portfolio activity, with five new positions initiated in Anthropic, AppLovin, CATL, Figma and RedNote.

Milosz then turns to SMT’s strong long-term performance record, with NAV total returns ranking first among the nine funds in the AIC Global sector over the last one, three and 10 years, and annual NAV total returns of 18.3% over the last decade. He concludes by outlining the trust’s other notable features, including its 43-year record of consecutive annual dividend increases (placing it among the AIC’s dividend heroes), its recent return to trading at a small premium to NAV, the board’s active share repurchase programme, its use of gearing, and an ongoing charges ratio of 0.31% – the lowest in the AIC Global sector.

***********************************************************

About ‘Uncovering Trusts’

'Uncovering Trusts': is a podcast run by Edison analysts released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers around 50 investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

In this episode, our director of content, investment trusts Milosz Papst talks about BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust, UK’s only listed closed-end investment company dedicated exclusively to Latin American equities. He covers the key takeaways from Edison’s research note on BRLA published in March 2026, including the healthy returns delivered by Latin American equities in 2025 and the low weighting of global indices to Latin America. He explains the importance of macroeconomic factors in driving recent returns, including favourable commodity prices, monetary policy, as well as a shift towards more pragmatic, market-friendly economic policies. Finally, he elaborates on the trust’s current positioning and discount to NAV.

***********************************************************

About ‘Uncovering Trusts’

'Uncovering Trusts': is a podcast run by Edison analysts released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

About Edison: 

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers around 50 investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

 In this episode, our director of content for investment companies, Milosz Papst talks about Partners Group Private Equity (PEY), focusing on the company’s realisations, investments and distributions to shareholders. This is our first podcast on this UK-listed investment holding company domiciled in Guernsey that provides equity capital to private companies primarily in the middle and upper-middle market. Therefore, Milosz starts with an introduction to the company and its investment manager, Partners Group, which is one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry. He then explains how PEY’s investment strategy works in practice by discussing its investment in PCI Pharma Services. Milosz comments on the transactions that contributed to the company’s more than €200m realisation proceeds received in 2025. He elaborates on the company’s dividend policy and well-structured capital allocation framework introduced in 2024, which resulted in the announcement of a €15m buyback programme in 2025. He concludes the episode by summarising PEY’s recent investment activity.

***********************************************************

About ‘Uncovering Trusts’

Uncovering Trusts': is a podcast run by Edison analysts released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers around 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

In this episode, our director of content for investment companies, Milosz Papst, talks about Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (AAIF). He starts by explaining why global investors could benefit from an allocation to Asian equities, given the region’s above-average growth prospects and increasing dividend opportunities, before providing a brief summary of the company. Milosz highlights how the fund offers exposure to a diversified group of high-quality, reasonably priced Asian companies that should perform well in gradually rising, broad markets, while offering some protection during choppier periods. He then discusses the shape of the portfolio and the transactions undertaken since Isaac Thong became lead manager in May 2025.

Milosz points to the fund’s strong outperformance versus the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index over the last five years, and how the company stacks up against the four other funds in the AIC Asia Pacific Equity Income sector. He then focuses on the important changes that were announced last year: the introduction of an enhanced dividend policy and a three-year continuation vote. AAIF’s dividends are now set at 1.5625% of quarter-end NAV and the company is just a couple of years away from joining the select list of the AIC’s dividend heroes, which are companies with at least 20 consecutive years of higher annual dividends.

**************************************************************

About 'Uncovering Trusts'

Uncovering Trusts is a podcast run by Edison analysts, released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

In this episode, our director of content for investment companies, Milosz Papst, talks about JPMorgan European Discovery Trust (JEDT). He starts by introducing the trust before highlighting why now could be an interesting time to look at the company. Firstly, it invests in an attractively priced asset class that has been out of favour but has delivered strong returns over the long term. Secondly, JEDT’s performance has improved under a relatively new management team. Milosz highlights that the managers seek ‘hidden gems’, which are attractively valued, high-quality companies with the potential to be the large market leaders of tomorrow. Their investment process combines screening, fundamental research and risk management, which includes the use of JPMorgan’s proprietary data systems. Changes have been made to the portfolio to reduce exposure to macroeconomic risk and increase the focus on bottom-up stock selection.

Milosz also explains why JEDT’s managers have a positive outlook on European small-cap stocks and what could cause an improvement in sentiment towards this part of the global market. He then moves onto the trust’s portfolio, highlighting some of its structural growth themes and discussing some recent transactions. Milosz provides details on the performance improvement, along with some of the stock contributors. At the end of 2025, JEDT had outperformed its benchmark, the MSCI Europe ex UK Small Cap Index, over the last one and three years. Also, within the three funds in the AIC European Smaller Companies sector, the trust’s NAV total returns now rank first over the last one and three years, and second over the last five years. Milosz concludes by highlighting other features of JEDT, namely its dividend policy, narrowing discount and the use of gearing.

**************************************************************

About 'Uncovering Trusts'

Uncovering Trusts is a podcast run by Edison analysts, released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

In this episode, our director of content, investment companies Milosz Papst talks about Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust. This is a timely podcast as the trust is once again under fire from US-based activist hedge fund Saba Capital Management. Shareholders voted decisively against Saba’s proposals in February 2025 and Edinburgh Worldwide’s board is urging shareholders to do so again. This time round, Saba has amassed a larger stake in the trust and is proposing to replace Edinburgh Worldwide’s board with three of its own representatives but has given no indication about the trust’s future strategy. Timing is tight as the general meeting is scheduled for 12:00 noon on 20 January 2026. The cut-off for submitting votes is 12:00 noon on Saturday 17 January 2026 but for platforms, the date may be as soon as 12 January 2026.

Papst provides a brief introduction to Edinburgh Worldwide before highlighting how the board has proactively addressed a period of poor performance. This included enhancing the investment team and meaningful improvements in portfolio construction and execution, such as fewer holdings and stricter measures to address underperforming investments. The portfolio was reshaped to include more profitable, cash-generative companies and to have greater sector diversification. These efforts have led to notably better performance.

Attention then returns to the pressing issue of Saba. Edinburgh Worldwide’s board strongly urges all of its shareholders, no matter how large or how small, to vote against Saba’s proposal to take control of the trust in a move that would favour Saba over the trust’s existing shareholders. Saba has not stated its intentions, beyond replacing the board, and has failed to engage, including a lack of response to a list of questions in Edinburgh Worldwide’s open letter on 30 December 2025.

**************************************************************

About 'Uncovering Trusts' 

Uncovering Trusts is a podcast run by Edison analysts, released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

In this episode, our director of content, investment trusts Milosz Papst talks about Murray International. This is our first podcast focusing on this large, well-established fund, so he starts by providing an introduction to the company, before highlighting how it differs from its peers in the AIC Global Equity Income sector. Murray International has a notable below-market weight in the US and a meaningful allocation to emerging markets. Discussion then moves onto the investment process, which features Aberdeen’s focus on quality and value, and input from its regional investment teams. He then provides more information about the portfolio, which is broadly diversified by geography and sector. To bring some more colour, he gives some examples of recent transactions, where portfolio activity has been higher than average as Murray International’s managers have found increased opportunities in a volatile market. Attention then turns to the trust’s performance and the change in the company’s reference measure to what is a more relevant MSCI ACWI High Dividend Yield Index given Murray International’s emphasis on income and dividend growth. Papst then highlights the trust’s competitive fee structure and its valuation, before wrapping up with summary of the key takeaways of the Murray International story.

***********************************************************

About ‘Uncovering Trusts’

'Uncovering Trusts': is a podcast run by Edison analysts released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

In this episode, our director of content, investment trusts Milosz Papst provides an update on BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust. After giving a quick refresher about the company, he discusses the Latin American investment backdrop, where valuations look very attractive. He then highlights the importance of upcoming election cycles, before delving into the managers’ views about the prospects for the region. Discussion then turns to the trust, starting with the stock selection process, where favoured companies tend to be high-quality businesses at reasonable valuations, which may be overlooked by other investors. He then provides information about the portfolio, where the managers are happy to invest in some of the smaller and non-index countries, although it is important to understand that a large part of the portfolio is likely to be made up of Brazilian and Mexican stocks as these two countries make up around 90% of the MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America Index, which is the trust’s benchmark. He highlights a few of the largest portfolio holdings before discussing performance, which has been positive this year in both absolute and relative terms. To wrap up the podcast, he focuses on the dividend policy, where income is an important element of the trust’s total return objective, and highlights the discount control mechanism, which includes a tender offer based on the trust’s performance and average discount over a four-year period ending 31 December 2025.

***********************************************************

About ‘Uncovering Trusts’

'Uncovering Trusts': is a podcast run by Edison analysts released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/