Strategic Equity Capital Trust
This investment trust was launched in July 2005 and has been managed by Stuart Widdowson at GVQ Investment Management since June 2009.
It invests mainly in small-cap UK equities that can create value through strategic, operational and management change. The manager adopts an investment approach unconstrained by market indices and aims to maximise returns for investors in the medium term.
GVQ Investment Management also “follows a practice of constructive corporate engagement” and aims to work with management teams in an effort to improve shareholder value.
The trust’s largest sector allocation is to technology and software at 19.7 per cent of the portfolio, with a further 18 per cent invested in electronics.
Its top 10 positions reflect this theme with the largest holding, at 11 per cent of the portfolio, in e2v Technologies, a company that develops semiconductor, power and imaging solutions, and whose image sensors captured the first ever close-up pictures of Pluto.
What the judges say
The judges said this fund’s returns, which are “quite remarkable even when compared with top-performing peers”, were just too strong to ignore.
In numbers
£146m
Net assets
358.6%
Five-year actual return
1.4%
Ongoing charges
Club members
Aberforth Geared Income Trust
Hermes UK Small and Mid Cap Companies
Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies Trust
Royal London UK Smaller Companies
