The only exception is a single trust whose manager only runs investment trusts.
UK Growth & Income
Over three years, the best-performing portfolio in the UK Growth & Income sector is Nick Train’s five crown-rated Finsbury Growth & Income Trust.
Performance of trusts over 3-yrs
| Name | 3-yr returns (%) | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Finsbury Growth & Income Trust | 77.36 | 1 |
| Lowland Investment Company | 76.79 | 2 |
| Edinburgh Investment Tst | 61.5 | 3 |
| Perpetual Income and Growth Investment Trust | 53.71 | 4 |
| Invesco Income Growth Trust | 53.44 | 5 |
| Shires Income | 49.02 | 6 |
Source: FE Analytics
Train has returned 77.36 per cent to investors over this time, and the trust is also the top-performer in the sector over 10 years.
The manager styles himself as a long-term value investor and seeks to buy companies that benefit from social and technological trends.
The returns of his open-ended CF Lindsell Train UK Equity fund, which sits in the IMA UK All Companies sector, are still impressive, at 60.09 per cent, but substantially lower than those of the trust.
FE Alpha Manager James Henderson’s Lowland Investment Company has returned a fraction less than Train’s over three years – 76.79 per cent – but it beats his open-ended Henderson UK Equity Income fund, which has made 47.51 per cent.
Neil Woodford’s Edinburgh Investment Trust is the third-placed portfolio over three years; its returns of 61.5 per cent are again higher than those from his Invesco Perpetual Income and High Income funds.
His colleague at Invesco, Mark Barnett, runs two investment trusts that have delivered top-quartile returns over three years – Perpetual Income and Growth Trust and Invesco Income Growth Trust.
They have both outperformed his open-ended Invesco Perpetual UK Strategic Income fund over this time.
Ed Beal is a senior investment manager on the pan-European equities team at Aberdeen, which runs the Shires Income trust.
Over three years it has made 49.02 per cent compared with 33.81 per cent from the Aberdeen UK Equity Income fund.
The closed-ended trusts also overwhelmingly have the upper hand in terms of yield. Shires Income is currently paying out 5.61 per cent, according to data from FE Analytics, while the Aberdeen UK Equity Income fund is yielding 4.2 per cent.
Neil Woodford’s two Invesco Perpetual open-ended funds are yielding less than four per cent, compared with 4.42 per cent from his Edinburgh Investment Trust.
Mark Barnett’s Invesco Income Growth Trust is yielding 4.14 per cent.
On the other hand, the Henderson UK Equity Income fund beats its closed-ended counterpart, while the Perpetual Income and Growth Investment Trust is yielding just 3.78 per cent, lower than Barnett’s open-ended funds.
UK Growth
Barnett’s Invesco Perpetual Select UK Equity is the best-performing trust in the IT UK Growth sector, making 56.79 per cent over three years, and despite sitting in a growth sector it is currently yielding a substantial 5.2 per cent.
It has outperformed the open-ended Invesco Perpetual UK Strategic Income portfolio that Barnett also manages, notable given the outperformance of the equity income sectors over the growth sectors over this period.
Performance of sectors over 3-yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Andy Brough’s Schroder UK Mid Cap investment trust is the second-best performer in the sector over three years, and its returns of 56.12 per cent beat those of his open-ended Schroder UK Mid 250 fund, which has made just 31.85 per cent.
Barnett’s Keystone IT and the JP Morgan Mid Cap IT make up the rest of the top quartile; the JP Morgan trust is run by William Meadon, who does not run an open-ended fund.
IT UK Growth 3-yr returns
| Name | 3-yr returns (%) | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Invesco Perpetual Select UK Equity | 56.79 | 1 |
| Schroder UK Mid Cap | 56.12 | 2 |
| Keystone IT | 48.52 | 3 |
| JP Morgan Mid Cap IT | 42.07 | 4 |
Source: FE Analytics