Scottish Mortgage has held on to its title as Generalist Trust of the Year. And this isn’t its only triumph this year, having also recorded a positive gain of 7.3 per cent for the year to 31 March, beating a 3.7 per cent fall in the benchmark FTSE All-World index.

Launched in 1909, Scottish Mortgage is one of a number of generalist trusts managed by Baillie Gifford. It is a low-cost investment trust that aims to maximise total returns from a focused and actively managed portfolio of equities.

It invests globally, looking for strong businesses with above-average returns.

Courage of its convictions
Manager of the portfolio James Anderson says, ‘We had some reward in April for our determination not to give in to the gloom markets demonstrated in the first three months of the year. We have continued to add to shares such as Google and Nintendo, which we felt had been unduly depressed in the recent turbulence despite their excellent secular growth prospects.’

He adds, ‘In general, we see the continuing rebalancing of world growth away from over-geared Anglo-American consumers and financial intermediaries towards those emerging from poverty to major productivity gains as to be welcomed not feared.’

Balanced mandate
Runner-up this year is Lowland Investment Company, managed by Henderson Global Investors. Lowland’s aim is to seek a higher-than-average return, with growth of both capital and income over the medium to long term.

Manager of the portfolio James Henderson puts the success of Lowland down to a combination of factors: ‘Firstly, the buy discipline is based on shares that have a relatively high dividend yield and will grow their dividends. Secondly, the sell discipline is based on shares that have a relatively low dividend yield and will not grow their dividends fast enough.’

Global view
Having been nominated last year, Murray International missed out on a top-five spot but has bounced back this year to take third place in the Generalist category.

Managed by Aberdeen Asset Management, Murray International’s objective is to achieve a total return greater than its benchmark by investing predominantly in equities worldwide.