Uncovering Trusts by Edison Group

In this episode, our director of content, investment trusts Milosz Papst talks about Invesco Asia Dragon Trust, which was recently created following the merger of Invesco Asia Trust with Asia Dragon Trust. He outlines the key benefits to shareholders of the enlarged entity, which retained the successful investment strategy of Invesco Asia Trust. He discusses the trust’s bottom-up, valuation-aware investment approach focused on sustainable business models and attractive valuations. He explains the deep research capability of Invesco’s Asia and emerging markets team. He also outlines the shareholder-friendly measures introduced in conjunction with the merger, including quarterly dividend payments and an unconditional tender every three years. He concludes by summarising the market view of IAD’s managers.

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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 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 discusses Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust, which is by far the UK’s largest emerging markets investment trust. He starts by providing some background to the current emerging markets opportunity. He elaborates on the trust’s strong performance as well as measures announced by the board in June 2024 aimed at improving liquidity in the trust’s shares and increasing shareholders’ potential total returns. He highlights the trust’s recent announcement related to the use of derivatives. He delves deeper into the trust’s investment process and portfolio structure. He provides examples of the trust’s significant portfolio holdings, such as TSMC, ICICI Bank and Tencent, as well as recent additions including Nari Technology and Ather Energy. He concludes by commenting on the trust’s dividends, revenue and special distributable reserves, discount to NAV and 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 trusts Milosz Papst provides an update on Franklin Global Trust, which was formerly the Martin Currie Global Portfolio Trust and featured in one of our October 2024 podcasts. Martin Currie’s parent Legg Mason was acquired by Franklin Templeton Investments in July 2020, but the brand was only retired earlier this year. The trust’s manager Zehrid Osmani and his team combined with the much larger US-based Franklin Equity Group and Jonathan Curtis was appointed as co-manager. Milosz then discusses Franklin Global Trust’s objective and investment process before explaining what it offers investors. He highlights that the trust is a straightforward equity portfolio with no unlisted businesses or derivatives, and is relatively concentrated, with around 30 holdings. Following on, he discusses the trust’s geographic and sector positioning and some of its larger holdings. He then focuses on performance, which has been disappointing in recent years due to the trust’s focus on growth stocks, which derated in a rising interest rate environment, and also there was insufficient exposure to the ‘Magnificent Seven’ large-cap technology stocks. However, over the longer term, the growth strategy has proved successful and during the dip in performance the managers have made improvements to the investment process. Finally, he discusses the trust’s dividend and its significant distributable reserves, and the zero-discount policy, which means that there are share buybacks on most trading days.

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

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 a detailed overview of four portfolio holdings of HgT. He starts with IFS, a provider of cloud enterprise software and industrial AI applications across multiple sectors including enterprise resource planning, enterprise asset management, field service management and enterprise service management for asset-heavy industries, such as aerospace and defence, energy utilities and resources, construction and engineering, manufacturing and telecoms. He then covers P&I, a provider of an integrated HR cloud platform to small and medium-sized enterprises, primarily in Germany. He also delves into Ideagen, a provider of compliance software to organisations operating in highly regulated industries, such as life sciences, healthcare, banking and finance,and insurance. Milosz also covers a more recent investment made by HgT in 2024 in AuditBoard, a modern, cloud-native connected risk platform changing the way enterprises automate, collaborate and report in real time on risk, audit and compliance workflows. He concludes by discussing the key highlights of HgT’s recently published H125 results.

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

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 overview of Law Debenture Corporation which aims to achieve a higher rate of total return than the broad UK stock market through investing in a diversified portfolio of primarily UK equities. He discusses the unique symbiotic relationship between the company’s investment portfolio and its independent professional services (IPS) business and how this drives performance. The regular flow of income that IPS generates, well ahead of its share of net assets, provides the portfolio managers with much greater freedom to balance the requirements for immediate income with the goal of growing capital values over time. He also comments on the company’s recent interim results, with a strong absolute and relative performance from the portfolio and continued growth in IPS. He elaborates on the main contributors to performance, including Rolls-Royce which is a good example of how Law Debenture Corporation can successfully invest in companies not paying a dividend at the time of investment thanks to the regular income from IPS. Finally, he discusses the company’s current portfolio positioning as sentiment towards UK equities begins to improve.

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

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, healthcare analyst Dr Arron Aatkar provides an overview of Worldwide Healthcare Trust, the London-listed investment company that aims to generate a high level of capital growth from a diversified portfolio of global healthcare stocks. He discusses the stock selection process, which involves a bottom-up approach from a universe of c 1,000 companies, and comments on how the trust brings broad exposure to the global healthcare industry through a multi-cap approach. Dr Aatkar also provides an overview of the current portfolio, highlighting the notable exposure to biotech companies and underweight exposure to pharmaceutical companies (relative to the benchmark index). The discussion then moves on to the trust’s performance in recent years and concludes with the managers’ outlook on the healthcare sector, commenting on how the fundamentals remain favourable despite recent headwinds, particularly for smaller biotech companies.

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

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 a brief introduction to The Diverse Income Trust (DIVI). It is managed by Gervais Williams and Martin Turner at Premier Miton Group, who aim to generate a dividend income stream that is more resilient and has the potential to grow faster than those of the trust’s peers. Milosz then explains how stocks are selected, emphasising the importance of company meetings to the research process. He provides information about the main features of DIVI’s portfolio and the trust’s dividend history before turning to the UK market, which includes the managers’ very optimistic outlook for UK stocks.

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

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, healthcare analyst Dr Arron Aatkar provides an overview of the Biotech Growth Trust, the London-listed investment company that seeks capital appreciation by investing in the worldwide biotechnology industry. He discusses the stock selection process, which involves a bottom-up approach, and comments on how the trust favours smaller, emerging biotechs. He also provides an overview of the current portfolio, highlighting the notable increase in exposure to Chinese biotechs during the first half of 2025. The discussion then moves on to the trust's performance in recent years, from the highs seen across the sector during the COVID-19 pandemic to the flight of capital and rightsizing. He concludes with the managers' outlook on the healthcare sector, commenting on how the current landscape may be perceived as a compelling mix of attractive valuations and increasing demand for new biotech innovations.

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

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 investment trusts analyst, Michal Mordel discusses the investment opportunities arising in Vietnam. He explores the country’s transformation and remarkable growth story, as well as its place in global supply chains and the current geopolitical landscape. He talks about Vietnam’s greatest advantage, which is its young, productive and well-educated population. Michal also presents a brief rundown of investment vehicles available to London-based investors that focus on Vietnam and can serve as a gateway to this market.

In this episode, our director of content, investment trusts Milosz Papst provides an overview of North America’s second-oldest closed-end fund established in 1930, which is listed on both the Toronto and London stock exchanges. He discusses the trust’s strong long-term track record, highlighting that a C$10,000 investment in the fund fifty years ago would have grown to more than C$3,000,000. He elaborates on the fund’s investment approach, which is bottom up but also considers the macroeconomic environment, and its low turnover. He highlights that up to 25% of its portfolio may be held in US-listed businesses, which are primarily in niche operations or areas that are under-represented in the Canadian market. He summarizes the manager’s views on the current investment environment and its recent portfolio activity. Finally, he comments on the fund’s dividend policy (and the fact that it qualified as AIC’s next-generation dividend hero), gearing 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 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/