More than 150 years after investment trusts were invented, they still offer everyday investors access to new frontiers
When CT Private Equity Investment Trust sold most of its stake in fast-growing Cardo Group in February 2026,[1] it delivered a return of 5.3 times its initial investment made in 2024. The Cardiff-based property maintenance firm had expanded rapidly over that period, supporting the investment outcome.
But this gain depended on CT Private Equity Investment Trust being a patient investor. Cardo Group had grown so quickly that it was named one of the UK’s fastest growing businesses in 2025.[2] That growth fuelled the trust’s return, but it took several years.
The fact that investment trusts have permanent capital enables them to give ordinary investors access to alternative investments like private equity, real estate and long-short hedge funds. Unlike open-ended funds, investment trusts do not face redemptions that might force them to sell at the worst moment, so they can hold illiquid investments such as Cardo Group or use hedge fund strategies that focus on expert stock picking.
Broadly speaking, it’s mainly big institutional investors that have access to alternative investments, with their specialist investment opportunities and diversification of risk away from public stock markets. But ordinary investors looking for a way to do so often overlook a longstanding means of doing so: UK investment trusts.
Within its investment trust stable, Columbia Threadneedle Investments provides three such trusts. Respectively, they invest in private equity, European and UK real estate, and long-short equity healthcare investments.
Turning patience into performance
The three trusts are each managed by established investment teams, forming part of Columbia Threadneedle’s global $71.0 bn alternative investment business.[3] The depth of resource behind them is characteristic of the firm’s eight investment trusts, including the F&C Investment Trust, launched in 1868, that’s the world’s oldest collective investment scheme.
Like many other investment funds, CT Private Equity Investment Trust targets long-term capital growth, as well as an above average level of dividends. What’s different is that it does so through a portfolio of more than 500 medium-sized private companies. Besides Cardo, another example of a top holding is the well-known Weird Fish clothing brand.
Testifying to the trust’s long-term success, it was named in 2025 as the ninth best performing investment trust over the last 10 years by the Association of Investment Companies.[4] Currently, more than 40% of its investments are in the UK, but there are also investments in the United States and Europe.
Also aiming to turn patience into investment performance is the TR Property Investment Trust. It aims to maximise returns through property shares in the UK and Europe, and physical UK investment property. With many real estate equities trading at substantial discounts to their net asset values, there’s potential for medium-term capital gains unconnected with the direction of global equity markets.
Originally listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1953, the trust has a long history and is supported by a well-resourced team focused on UK real estate. The current fund manager, Marcus Phayre-Mudge, has managed the trust since 2011. At a time of heightened geopolitical risk, it offers a relatively high dividend yield of 4.9%.[5]
The long and short of healthcare investing
A different sort of alternative investment is a long-short fund like the CT Healthcare Trust. In hedge fund investing, a “long” position means buying a stock in the expectation that its price will rise. A “short” position means borrowing and selling a stock that the investor does not own, in the expectation that its price will fall.
Currently, healthcare companies offer considerable scope for investment returns from long positions due to their potentially groundbreaking innovations in today’s golden age of medical science. Yet many potential drugs fail during development, leading to falls in stock prices, which is why the trust also takes short positions that can profit if falls occur. By taking positions on both sides of the market (long and short), the trust seeks to generate positive returns while limiting its exposure to stock market movements.
Based in New York, the specialist team managing this trust comes from the biotech and pharma industries. The team members are well qualified to evaluate science, clinical data and nuances from healthcare regulators. Such expertise is invaluable in a sector where investment outcomes hinge on technical details.
Opening up access to alternative investments
With ordinary investors around the world increasingly aware of alternative investments, are investment trusts being overlooked? In the United States, the investment gains of private businesses like OpenAI and SpaceX are well known. And in the UK, long-term asset funds (LTAFs) have recently been launched to channel investors’ money into illiquid assets such as private equity, infrastructure and real estate.
Yet LTAFs have minimum investments of £10,000 and selling requires at least a month’s notice. By contrast, investment trusts are bought and sold daily with no minimum.
More than 150 years ago, investment trusts were invented to give ordinary investors access to new investment frontiers – at that time overseas companies. Today, alternative investments are a new frontier and investment trusts offer a proven way to access them.
[1] Mention of a specific stock is not a recommendation to trade.
[2] Cardo Group named one of the UK’s fastest-growing businesses. October 22, 2025. https://cardogroup.co.uk/cardo-group-named-one-of-the-uks-fastest-growing-businesses/
[3] As of 31 December 2025.
[4] https://www.theaic.co.uk/aic/news/press-releases/top-20-best-performing-investment-trusts-for-your-isa#:~:text=The%20ninth%20best%20performing%20company,Holding%20and%20VinaCapital%20Vietnam%20Opportunity.
[5] Source: The Association of Investment Companies. 23.04.26.
Capital at risk. Past performance is not an indication of future returns. The value of your investments can go down as well as up meaning you can get back less than you invest. © Columbia Threadneedle Management Limited. No. 517895, Authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority. Columbia Threadneedle Investments is the global brand name of the Columbia and Threadneedle group of companies.
