Investment Trust - June 2024 update

The AJ Bell IT Select list is designed to lighten your research load. There are many investment trusts out there – so we’ve narrowed the field by selecting a high-quality shortlist of trusts we believe can deliver their objectives over the long term. To make the list, each trust needs to pass our robust, independent selection process.

What have we changed?

We keep our IT Select list under constant review to ensure we have the highest conviction in the investment trusts on the list, and to find new trusts with better potential to achieve their objectives.

As a result of this work, we’ve recently removed the CC Japan Income & Growth Trust.

Why have we removed this investment trust?

Over recent years, the trust’s investment manager, Chikara Investments, has suffered large and persistent outflows. This has led to a significant decline in its assets under management (AUM). Though Chikara has made several recent hires in an attempt to grow its asset base, we’d want to see the business grow and maintain its AUM before reconsidering the trust.

Another factor is that Richard Aston, the lead manager on the trust, has recently taken on the management of the Chikara Japan Alpha fund – following the retirement of its previous manager. This fund, given its focus on smaller companies, has a very different investment opportunity set to the CC Japan Income & Growth Trust. As a result, we expect Richard Aston to become more stretched managing the two strategies.

As there’s a limited number of investment trusts investing solely in Japan, we aren’t planning on replacing this trust on the list.