The UK Investor Magazine has selected a diverse range of investment trusts for readers to consider this month. Our selections provide targeted exposure to the fast-growing Asian economy of Vietnam and a blend of high-growth and high-income UK equities.
Vietnam Holding
Investors may look at Vietnam Holding and think they’ve missed a buying opportunity. In many respects, they have.
We included Vietnam Holding in our ‘Five shares to consider after the tariff-induced sell-off’ when the trust was trading at 290p. Vietnam Holding is now changing hands at 370p.
While it’s annoying not to buy near the bottom of a sell-off, Vietnam Holding is a long-term play on the expansion of the Vietnamese economy. Looking back in five years from now, the difference between recent April lows and the current price will likely seem insignificant.
Despite the recent rally, Vietnam Holding still trades with a share price discount to NAV of 6%. Vietnam Holding recently traded at a premium, allowing it to become the first Vietnamese-focused trust to issue shares and expand the size of its fund for over a decade. One would expect VNH’s efforts to manage the discount through an innovative redemption scheme to keep shares on course to reach a premium to NAV again before long.
Vietnam was one of the first countries to secure a trade deal with the United States, providing the market with certainty over the near-term outlook for the economy.
Vietnam has a five-year CAGR of 15% driven by deft picks such as Vietnam’s leading tech firm FPT Corp and banks including Techcom Bank.
With Vietnam in the midst of a technology-driven economic expansion, the future looks promising for MSCI’s largest frontier market.
Rights and Issues Investment Trust
UK small caps are primed for a revival. Sentiment around the asset class can’t get much worse, creating the conditions that have historically proved to be the best time to allocate to the sector.
The Rights and Issues Investment offers investors a diversified portfolio of high-growth UK small caps, selected by managers Matthew Cable and Tim Service.
The trust has returned 121% over the past ten years compared to benchmark returns of just 80%. There have been a number of years the trust has returned more than 50% over the period.
The managers are doing a yeoman’s job of selecting and holding on to small and mid-cap winners. The top ten holdings include Renold, up 71% in 2025 after receiving a takeover offer, and Alpha Group, which has returned 42% so far this year.
The trust employs a blended top-down and bottom-up approach to stock selection, focusing on small caps with high-quality management. The trust is focused on industrials with strong revenue streams and attractive valuations. Their approach to small caps allows them to hold positions in less liquid shares over longer periods than possible through open-ended fund structures.
This is a trust to be in if you believe in the UK small and mid-cap renaissance.
The Diverse Income Trust
Managed by Premier Miton, The Diverse Income Trust is an exciting and highly diversified portfolio of UK companies providing investors with a yield of 4%.
The trust’s yield isn’t the greatest in the UK equity income sector, but it compensates for a slightly lower yield with exemplary capital appreciation.
The trust’s stock selection process uses a ‘traffic-light’ process to identify companies that can grow their dividends on a consistent basis. This process evaluates whether there are prospects for rising turnover, whether profit margins can be sustained, and whether the management team makes decisions that will build real intrinsic value. The process also considers how much financial flexibility exists in the balance sheet and whether there are low expectations in the share price.
The Managers adopt a stock-specific approach in managing the trust’s portfolio, which means that sector weightings are of secondary consideration. As a result of this approach, the trust’s portfolio does not track any benchmark index. The diversity of the trust is demonstrated in its top holdings, which include Galliford Try, Plus500, BT, Paypoint, and Aviva. Many holdings could be consider growth plays just as much as income stocks.
The approach is paying off for investors.
The Diverse Income Trust‘s share price is 20% higher over the last year and has returned 75% over 10 years. This doesn’t include dividends.