With volatility starting to creep back into the market and valuations globally looking on the rich side, income investors may be seeking allocations that provide yield.
We highlight three investment trusts that could be considered ‘high yield’ trusts with yields above 6%. The selection also offers diversification away from assets that have faced turbulence over the past week.
GCP Infrastructure Investments (LON: GCP)
A FTSE 250 constituent listed since July 2010, GCP Infrastructure is a Jersey-incorporated trust advised by Gravis Capital Management. Its objective is to generate regular, sustained long-term distributions and preserve capital by lending primarily into UK infrastructure projects with long-dated, public-sector-backed, availability-based revenues. Many of them are structured to benefit from partial inflation protection.
At 31 March 2026, the portfolio comprised 47 investments, a weighted average annualised yield of 8.0%, an average life of 11 years and 49.4% partially inflation-protected.
The current 22% discount to NAV means the trust yields 9.1%, backed by cash flows from UK infrastructure projects, including a Birmingham biomass plant, Nottingham Police buildings, and schools in Slough.
By sector, it is weighted towards renewables (57%), public–private partnerships (28%) and supported social housing (15%), with its largest single exposure the cross-collateralised Cardale PFI loan at 14.6% of assets.
NAV stood at £828.9 million, or 100.26p per share, essentially flat over the quarter as a 0.57p uplift from higher near-term power-price forecasts and a 0.26p boost from share buybacks offset reductions tied to lower OBR inflation forecasts and project-specific updates.
For investors, the headline attraction is the yield. The 7.00p dividend equates to a 9.1% yield and a payout that has been maintained at 1.75p on a quarterly basis since 2021.
The main risk here is sentiment towards the UK. But one could argue this has already been priced into the current discount.
Dunedin Income Growth (LON: DIG)
One of the oldest investment trusts in existence, with roots stretching back to 1873, Dunedin Income Growth is an Aberdeen-managed UK equity income vehicle run by Ben Ritchie and Rebecca Maclean and benchmarked against the FTSE All-Share.
It aims to grow both income and capital from a high-quality portfolio invested mainly in UK-listed companies or businesses with significant UK operations or exposure.
On 30 April 2026, the trust held 36 investments, yet its top 20 accounted for just under 69% of the portfolio, with an eye-catching selection of stocks you won’t find in other UK equity income funds, as well as income-bearing heavyweights.
The sector mix is diversified: financials lead at 25.6%, followed by technology (15.8%), industrials (13.8%), energy (10.9%), healthcare (9.4%), consumer discretionary (7.2%), consumer staples (5.8%), utilities (5.6%) and real estate (5.2%), with a sliver of cash. Crucially, that diversity extends to where the income comes from, the trust is not simply clustered in the usual high-yield staples.
The holdings themselves span the market-cap spectrum. Large-cap dividend holdings such as TotalEnergies (7.6%, the single largest position), RELX, NatWest, the London Stock Exchange Group, Standard Chartered, National Grid, AstraZeneca, Tesco and Diageo sit alongside a deliberate emphasis on quality mid-caps and compounders; Softcat, Oxford Instruments, Sage, Experian, Sirius Real Estate, LondonMetric, Convatec and French LNG specialist Gaztransport among them.
A recent dip in trust’s shares means it now yields 6.3%. Of the three outlined here, it is the most exposed to equity markets, and investors can make their own judgment whether this presents a risk in the current environment.
EJF Investments (LON: EJFI)
The most specialist of the three investment trusts and another quarterly dividend payer, EJF Investments, is a constituent of the Specialist Fund Segment and managed by US-based EJF Capital LP, a group with around $5.4 billion under management.
EJFI offers exposure to debt issued by smaller US banks and insurance companies – something that makes this trust stand out from other higher-income investment trusts.
US banks provide a stable source of income for investors and those looking to build a truly diversified portfolio won’t find anything else like EFJ listed in London.
At 31 March 2026, securitisations and related investments accounted for roughly 69.5% of group assets, with CDO equity tranches alone accounting for about 62%; credit risk transfer positions and US bank debt added a further 6.4% and 4.4%, respectively, with the balance in cash and a money-market fund.
Since 2017, the trust has had negative yearly NAV performance only twice.
But the main attraction is, of course, the progressive dividend. The trust raised the quarterly dividend by 7% to an annualised 11.45p, a yield of roughly 9% on the share price.
The shares traded at a 23% discount at quarter-end (narrowing to 21.9% by end-April), and management alignment is strong, with EJF owning around 28% of the shares and the board holding authority to tender up to 5% of the stock annually.
Some may see risks in gearing (a gearing ratio of about 26.5%, covered 3.39 times) and concentration in the fortunes of small US financial institutions. But this concentration is a result of expertise in the sector.