CT Global Managed Portfolio Trust’s growth and income shares have both delivered strong double-digit returns in the first year under new managers Adam Norris and Paul Green, as a pivot toward Asia and emerging markets paid off, according to the trust’s annual results report.
Former manager Peter Hewitt retired last year, handing the portfolios to Norris and Green from 1 June 2025.
In their first year at the helm, Norris and Green made sweeping changes to both the Growth and Income portfolios. This includes cutting 14 holdings from the portfolio to up concentration in fewer names, as well as slashing UK exposure in favour of Asia and emerging markets.
The trust went on to deliver a strong performance for the year to 31 May 2026, as growth shares returned 25.6% on a share price basis while income shares returned 21.2%, placing the trust ahead of the FTSE All-Share’s 21.6% total return once dividends are counted on a NAV basis.
Standout winners for the strategy include Polar Capital Technology Trust – which has gone all in on some of the biggest AI players, such as Nvidia – alongside the Schiehallion fund and Fidelity Emerging Markets. These all provided triple-digit returns over the year.
In contrast, the trust’s private equity holdings struggled, with HgCapital Trust down 26.3% and Literacy Capital down 28.4%, as both suffered from concerns that AI could disrupt the software and services businesses they are exposed to.
Norris and Green said: “Our positive outlook at the start of the financial year, based on a strengthening economic backdrop and improving corporate earnings, has, at times, been tested by heightened geopolitical risks.
“However, the strength of corporate earnings has driven many equity market indices to new record highs, much in reaction to AI and data centre supply chains.”
They said they repositioned the portfolios to reflect their favoured investment markers, with the biggest beneficiaries being investment companies focused on Asia and emerging markets equities. The growth portfolio allocation increased to 18.1% while the income portfolio was upped to 17.7%.
“The level of overlap between the growth and income portfolios has increased,” Norris and Green added, pointing to the introduction of Invesco Global Equity Income Trust into the portfolio.
“It is now the largest holding in the growth portfolio and a top five holding in the income portfolio,” the managers said.
Alongside portfolio allocation changes, the board is also changing its approach to dividends. First, it aims to grow dividends at least in line with UK inflation over rolling three-year periods, rather than working to a fixed pence target. Second, the trust will pay dividends monthly instead of quarterly from June 2027.
The trust board has also raised the annual dividend by 3.3% to 7.85p per income share, marking the 15th consecutive year of dividend growth.
After paying this year’s fourth dividend, the trust has £2.9m sitting in the revenue reserve, which covers 59% of the coming year’s dividend cost. There is also a £29.6m distributable reserve which was created when the trust cancelled its share premium account in 2022: it is attributable to income shareholders and can also be drawn on to support dividends.
The board is also making changes to how the trust will measure performance, swapping out its single FTSE All-Share benchmark for three complementary comparators: FTSE All-Share, FTSE All-Share Closed End Investments Index and CPI.
David Warnock, chair of CT Global Managed Portfolio Trust, said: “Whether through clearer performance reporting, protecting income against inflation, providing a more convenient dividend payment schedule or making fuller use of existing features of the company’s investment policy, each initiative is designed to improve the experience and outcomes for our shareholders.”
During the financial year ending 31 May 2026, the growth shares and income shares traded at an average discount of 1.8% and an average premium of 0.6% respectively.
Looking ahead, the managers expect economic growth to stay positive, noting that earnings momentum appears strong and increasingly broad-based across sectors and regions.
“Narrow market leadership remains a risk, particularly given the extent to which the AI theme has driven gains in a relatively small group of companies, but the underlying profit picture is healthier than this suggests,” the managers said.
“We continue to see the most compelling return opportunities in equities, both public and private with selective allocations to alternative, bonds and direct lending investment companies.”