Join Jo Groves, Ryan Lightfoot-Aminoff and David Brenchley from Kepler Trust Intelligence for a roundup of all the news that matters to investment trust investors in September, brought to you in association with Schroders. In the news, Ryan looks at a multitude of manager changes including the retirements of some industry veterans, as well as the details of a proposed combination between two UK smaller companies trusts. Elsewhere in results, he looks over the key details of Schroder Asian Total Return (ATR)’s full year report, including a progress update on the proposed combination with Pacific Assets (PAC), before a quick run through of Murray Income (MUT) following its first reports after the management switch to Artemis. Interspersed with these two results pieces, Jo looks through the interim report from Vietnam Enterprise Investments (VEIL), plus an overview of the country’s economic growth in the context of an interesting period for Asia. Jo continues after results with an overview of her podcast with JPMorgan Emerging Markets Dividend Income (JEMI), including where the next wave of corporate reform will come from and their thoughts on Korea. Elsewhere in podcasts, David runs through the highlights of his chat with Paul Daggett from Neuberger Private Equity Partners (NBPE), including the state of the private equity space, as well as what opportunities have arisen from the AI sector. Back to Jo, who summarised her chat with Josh Golomb from Biotech Growth (BIOG) including commentary on the volatility of the biotechnology sector, and the emerging role of China in the space. Next, we run through the most bought trusts of the past month, include a surprise challenger for Scottish Mortgage (SMT)’s number one position in Temple Bar (TMPL), plus a debut on the list for Aberdeen Equity Income (AEI). Finally, our stat of the month looks at the performance of the S&P 500 in more detail, and how huge swathes of the market have underperformed the average, with performance continuing to be concentrated in a few stocks in a specific sector. 00:00 Introduction 00:23 What’s to come 00:48 UK small-cap combo 02:24 Manager changes & retirements 04:04 CORD’s non-changes 05:48 ATR results and combination update 07:31 Interim results for VEIL 09:30 MUT overview and Artemis impact 11:57 Summary of JEMI interview 13:48 NBPE on AI investment 16:26 BIOG’s biotech views 18:42 Most-bought trusts 20:07 Stat of the month & S&P 500 concentration 23:23 Risk warning Special thanks to our sponsors at Schroders, whose support makes this podcast possible. This podcast was recorded on 13/10/2026.
