The UK's largest investment trust, Scottish Mortgage, attracts perhaps more than its fair share of publicity.
And as readers will doubtless know, US hedge fund outfit Elliott Advisers has jut become the largest shareholders in the trust and is pressing for it to sell some of its unquoted holdings to justify the valuations at which those are held in the accounts of the trust.
The trust’s share price bounced in the immediate aftermath of the news of Elliot’s investment, but some of those gains were eroded as investors became spooked by the potential for rates in the US to stay higher for longer, denting the appeal of long duration equities such as those owned by Scottish Mortgage.
Despite its size, the allocators we monitor have typically been fairly ambivalent about Scottish Mortgage - global equity funds such as Ninety One Global Environment and Fundsmith Equity have long been much more popular.
One allocator which as stuck with the trust through thick and thin has been Close Brothers, which continues to hold Scottish Mortgage.
We had a chat with Robert Alster, the chief investment officer at Close Brothers, about what he sees in the trust and he revealed that the company has been increasing its exposure.
Alster said: “We are long term holders of Scottish Mortgage and are positive on technology as a theme and sector, and like the breadth of their technology-oriented investments.
"For example, they invest in healthcare, automotive and mid-cap tech companies as well and they are global in approach.
"More recently, we’ve been adding owing to the relatively wide discount and share price underperformance which we think gives us a longer-term opportunity to increase our holding."
