Investment trusts that should profit from private equity

Private equity has recovered steadily from its spring slump, but still offers value. Max King casts his eye over five investment trusts specialising in this promising sector.

Shares in the listed private-equity sector have recovered steadily from their sharp falls, although many still trade at tempting discounts to net asset value (NAV). However, whereas the NAVs of trusts investing in listed equities are updated daily, those of private-equity trusts are calculated infrequently and even then may be based on a valuation point several months in arrears.

Despite some updated valuations and stockbrokers’ estimates for others, the numbers remain uncertain. Many businesses have been directly affected by the lockdown, others indirectly, and some have even done well out of it. Nobody knows how long it will take for business to return to normal, or even what that “normal” may look like. That presents investors with both opportunity and risk.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.