My Favorite Fund for Retirement Income (Yields 8.3%)

by Michael Foster, Investment Strategist

I’m regularly struck by something American investors always seem to take for granted: The many choices we have available to gain financial independence.

And investors in closed-end funds (CEFs) make the most of these choices. These high-yielding funds kick out 8%+ dividends on average, and the portfolio of my CEF Insider service, which helps investors make the most of CEFs, pays even more, with its 18 holdings paying a rich average yield of 9.4%.

Plus, these funds offer stock-like upside, which makes them pretty much tailor-made for delivering financial freedom.

We’ll sketch out how two specific CEFs can help you find your way to an earlier, richer retirement in a bit. But first, back to that embarrassment of choices I mentioned a second ago.

What American Investors Take for Granted

Back in my 20s, when I was studying to get my PhD in Europe, I was told I had to pay into the national pension fund, and I would get that money back when I qualified for it. At that time, I qualified at 62, which seemed absurd – nearly 40 years for me (a severely underpaid academic!) to get back money I desperately needed today.

But as it turns out, I was lucky.

Europe’s mandatory retirement age is rising. Denmark, which currently has the oldest retirement age in Europe at 67, is raising that to 70. Germany, where a normal retirement age is currently 66, is discussing raising that to 73.

Whether you like the life of a worker or not, I’m almost certain that you like having the ability to choose that life without having to worry about governments changing the rules on you mid-game.

A Look at America

This lack of choice pushed me away from Europe in my 20s and led me back to America. Here’s what I found when I returned.

This chart shows that the average American household has gone from $200k in savings in the 1980s to $1.2 million now – and, no, that isn’t due to inflation. That $200k in savings would be $535k in 2025 dollars, so more than half of the jump to $1.2 million is due to actual value being created.

Of course, that wealth isn’t going everywhere. While all households have gotten richer on average, the top 0.1% of the population is attracting a greater proportion of overall wealth in the US, now near 14%.

The ethics of this aside, it’s clear that the households that have more wealth now have more choices – about when to retire, where to live, what lifestyle to adopt and so on.

In a way, it seems like Europeans have too little choice and Americans have so much that retirement investing can be tough for individual investors to navigate without either taking undue risks or locking themselves into weak returns.

CEFs: Your 8%+ Paying “Mini-Pension” (With Upside)

This is where CEFs come in, with their focus on assets from well-established companies. Plus their high yields almost act like a “mini-pension,” boosting your income without leaving you at the whim of the government.

This is the way I viewed CEFs in my late 20s, when I began using their high dividends to get the income I needed to make the choices I wanted. I still view them this way.

And in addition to their big dividends, these funds often chalk up strong returns, too, thanks in large part to their discounts to net asset value (NAV, or the value of their underlying portfolios). As these discounts – which only apply to CEFs, by the way – shrink, they put upward pressure on the fund’s price.

And the best part is that CEFs are easy to buy, trading on public markets just like stocks.

Consider the first CEF we’re looking at today, the Adams Diversified Equity Fund (ADX). It’s one of the oldest funds in the world, tracing its history back to the 19th century (and is a current CEF Insider holding, too).

This one is about as blue chip as it gets, with stocks like Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) among its top holdings.

What’s more – and this is the key part – ADX trades at an 8.3% discount to NAV as I write this, and that discount is in the sweet spot, cheaper than it was a few months ago but carrying momentum as it steams toward par.

ADX Is a Rare Bargain in a Pricey Market

ADX has been paying dividends since before the Great Depression, and its 8.3% dividend yield is fully covered by the 13.3% total NAV return (or the return on its underlying portfolio) it’s enjoyed over the last decade. Moreover, ADX has delivered a 5,340% return to its shareholders, with dividends reinvested, since the late 1980s, when US household wealth just started to meaningfully tick higher.

ADX’s Long-Term Gains

That kind of performance – coming our way at a discount and with an 8.3% dividend – is exactly what we want from our “mini-pension,” and ADX delivers.

But, as I said, we do have choices here. And ADX isn’t the only US-stock-focused CEF that delivers a large income stream and has withstood the test of time.

Another is the General American Investors Company (GAM), which was launched in 1927 and yielded an impressive 9.4% to investors in 2024. GAM also holds large caps, with Alphabet (GOOGL), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) and Apple (AAPL) among its top holdings.

And, like ADX, this fund’s market pricebased return has been strong over the last decade – though not quite as strong as ADX – with a 14.4% annualized return.

2 Strong Funds, But ADX Has an Edge

Moreover, GAM’s 9.3% discount sounds like a good deal, but that’s near its smallest-ever level, so we’re not rushing out to buy the fund today. But it is worth watching, and gets tempting when that discount drops to double digits.

But the larger point remains: With high-yielding CEFs like these, we can start generating a meaningful income stream we can choose to use however we like

Income at the end of October £9,915.00.

The 2025 fcast of £9,175.00 will be met even after the special dividend from VPC is deducted.

Current cash £1,035 > 1k to be added to the 5k in ORIT, maybe not today though.

If you want to track the history of FGEN in the Snowball, type FGEN in the search box and the history of the share should be there.

Dividend

The Company also announces a quarterly interim dividend of 1.99 pence per share for the quarter ended 30 June 2025, in line with the dividend target of 7.96 pence per share for the year to 31 March 2026, as set out in the 2025 Annual Report – which represents a yield of 9.7% on the closing share price on 5 August 2025.

Current price 69p dividend 7.96 a yield of 11.5%

Foresight Environmental Infrastructure Ltd (FGEN) may appeal to income-focused investors, but caution is warranted due to recent performance and valuation metrics.
Here’s a breakdown of the key factors to consider before buying:

📉 Performance & Valuation

• Share Price: Currently trading around GBX 68.40, down roughly 21% over the past year.
• Net Asset Value (NAV): Estimated at GBX 104.86, suggesting the stock trades at a significant discount to NAV.
• Dividend Yield: Offers a high yield of ~11.5%, which may attract income investors.
• Earnings: Recent net income is negative (-£2.84M), and EPS is effectively zero, indicating weak profitability.
• Forward P/E: Estimated at 6.84, which is low, but reflects earnings uncertainty.

🏗️ Portfolio & Strategy

• FGEN invests in a diversified portfolio of environmental infrastructure assets, including renewable energy and waste management.
• Formerly known as JLEN, it has a long-standing focus on sustainability and infrastructure resilience.

⚠️ Risks & Considerations

• Low RSI (26.22) suggests the stock may be oversold, but also reflects bearish sentiment.
• Beta of 0.27 implies low volatility, which may suit conservative investors.
• No consensus analyst rating or price target is currently available, making it harder to benchmark expectations.

🧭 Bottom Line
FGEN could be a value opportunity for long-term investors seeking high yield and discounted NAV, especially if you believe in the resilience of environmental infrastructure. However, negative earnings and weak recent performance suggest caution. If you’re building a narrative around institutional cycles, this might symbolize a fund in a trough—potentially poised for recovery, or emblematic of structural headwinds.

Foresight Environmental Infrastructure Ltd (FGEN) trades at a deeper discount and offers a higher yield than its peers, but its recent underperformance and negative earnings make it a riskier bet. Greencoat UK Wind (UKW) and The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) offer more stability and scale, though they too face headwinds.

Here’s a comparative snapshot to help you sharpen your metaphorical lens:

🔍 Valuation & Yield Comparison

Sources:

🏗️ Portfolio Focus & Strategy

• FGEN: Broad environmental infrastructure—anaerobic digestion, hydro, solar, and waste. Smaller scale, more niche.
• UKW: Pure-play wind—onshore and offshore UK assets. Large scale, inflation-linked dividends.
• TRIG: Mixed renewables—wind and solar across UK and Northern Europe. Diversified geography and technology.

Co Pilot

Gold glitters most but a September sell-off leaves one infrastructure fund yielding a sparkling 12%

• 15 October 2025

Last month was a great one for investment companies exposed to gold, biotechnology, emerging markets and corporate actions aimed at restoring shareholder value. Infrastructure fund prospects look less than golden with high interest rates and declining power price forecasts, but one £422m renewables portfolio perhaps deserves a closer look with shares on a wide 35% discount.

September’s risers and fallers 

The historic rally in gold, racing 11.5% to a new high in September, and up 57% this year, continues to propel listed mining funds with Golden Prospect Precious Metal (GPM) shares leaping 30.5% last month. That makes the New City managed closed-end fund the biggest riser in our table (see left column in our first table). 

After a 143% surge this year, the Guernsey investment company is rapidly closing in on a £100m market valuation that could put it on the radar of more investors.

Stable mate CQS Natural Resources (CYN) and BlackRock World Mining (BRWM), which also have exposure to smaller gold miners, gained 28.4% and 21.9% respectively. CYN’s recent run up may have frustrated Saba Capital as the activist hedge fund exited at a much lower price in a tender offer. Geiger Counter (GCL), a £70m uranium mining fund run by the Golden Prospect team, also put on 20%.

Best performers

Investment company	Share price return (%)	Investment company	Underlying net asset value (NAV) return (%)
Golden Prospect Precious Metal	30.5	Golden Prospect Precious Metal	31.1
Petershill Partners	29	Geiger Counter	21.1
CQS Natural Resources Growth & Income	28.4	CQS Natural Resources Growth & Income	20.8
BlackRock World Mining Trust	21.9	International Biotechnology	15
Geiger Counter	20	BlackRock World Mining Trust	14.8
JPMorgan China Growth & Income	13.8	JPMorgan China Growth & Income	14
International Biotechnology	13.6	Biotech Growth	13.6
Biotech Growth	13.2	UIL	11.6
UIL	13.1	Polar Capital Technology	10.1
Schroders Capital Global Innovation	13	Pacific Horizon	9.8

Source: Bloomberg, Marten & Co. Total returns exclude investment companies with market capitalisation below £15m.

Petershill pole vaults 

Elsewhere, investment company corporate actions aimed at remedying poor shareholder returns resulted in a spectacular change in fortunes for Petershill Partners (PHLL). 

Shares in the £2.5bn Goldman Sachs fund investing in alternative investment managers jumped 29% last month after unveiling plans to delist and return cash to shareholders. That more than halved the gap between the share price and underlying net asset value (NAV) with the discount falling from nearly 35% to under 16%. This puts it at the top of our list of “more expensive” London-listed funds (see right column of our third table below). 

Emerging markets and biotech funds were also in favour with JPMorgan China Growth & Income (JCGI) and UIL (UTL), a sister fund and investor in Utilico Emerging Markets (UEM), both rising over 13%. At the end of the month UIL issued proposals for an annual £4m return of capital for the next three years until it delists that QuotedData’s James Carthew thought “ungenerous“.

Worst performers

Investment company	Share price return (%)	Investment company	Underlying net asset value (NAV) return (%)
JPMorgan Emerging EMEA Securities	-20.5	JPMorgan US Smaller Companies	-4.1
NB Distressed Debt Investment Extended Life	-15.6	NB Distressed Debt Investment Extended Life	-3.8
Aquila European Renewables	-13.7	STS Global Income & Growth Trust	-3.6
Life Settlement Assets	-12.5	Finsbury Growth & Income	-3.4
Gore Street Energy Storage Fund	-10.7	Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies	-3.3
Octopus Renewables Infrastructure	-9.3	Vietnam Holding	-3.3
Foresight Environmental Infrastructure	-9	VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund	-3.2
Globalworth Real Estate Investments	-8.7	Vietnam Enterprise	-2.9
Oryx International Growth	-6.7	Montanaro European Smaller Companies	-2
Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies	-6.7	Dunedin Income Growth	-1.7

Source: Bloomberg, Marten & Co. Total returns exclude investment companies with market capitalisation below £15m.

Russian doubts jolt JEMA 

The Russian court of appeal upholding $439m in damages to VTB Bank against eight JP Morgan entities, including the JPMorgan Emerging Europe, Middle East & Africa Securities (JEMA) investment trust, dented the speculative bubble around the £83m fund’s shares which retreated 20.5% last month. As a result the erratic share price premium tumbled from 332% over NAV in August to a slightly less enormous 231% (see last table below).

Infrastructure investment companies suffered another poor month as yields on 30-year UK government bonds, or gilts, maintained their highs of around 5.5%, diminishing the value of the funds’ long-term cash flows. 

Aquila European Renewables (AERS), down 13.7%, was the biggest faller in the peer group a month after writing down its valuation following the withdrawal of a potential bidder for some of its assets.

Gore Street Energy (GSF), the international battery fund under pressure from RM Funds, slid 10.7% before this month’s disclosure that activist investor Saba has also taken a 5% stake. 

Octopus Renewables Infrastructure (ORIT) declined 9.3% despite announcing a five-year recovery plan on 23 September. 

Share issuance and buybacks 

Investment company	£m raised	Investment company	£m returned
Fidelity European	446.3	Scottish Mortgage	103
City of London	12.8	Monks	54.3
TwentyFour Select Monthly Income	10.9	Worldwide Healthcare	42.8
Invesco Global Equity Income	7.8	Alliance Witan	31
Invesco Bond Income Plus	7.5	Finsbury Growth & Income	29.2

Source: Bloomberg, Marten & Co. Excludes investment companies with market capitalisation below £15m. Figures based on the approximate value of shares at 30/9/25.

Data last month showed a spike in withdrawals from open-ended funds after jittery investors withdrew £1.8bn in August. These high outflows read across to investment companies whose average share price discounts, excluding highly-rated private equity giant 3i Group (III), widened to 14% from 13.1% in September, according to broker Winterflood.

That trend saw more share buybacks across the market as investment companies sought to draw a line in the sand under their share prices. Scottish Mortgage Trust (SMT), the £12.6bn Baillie Gifford flagship, bought back an estimated further £103m of its shares in response to the lack of investor demand. 

By contrast, Fidelity European (FEV) issued around £446m shares in nearing completion of its merger with Henderson European which swells its assets to over £2.1bn and leaves it trading close to NAV on a narrrow 1% discount.

Cheap (left) and more expensive (right)

Source: Bloomberg, Marten & Co. Negative numbers show the discount or gap between share prices when they stand below their net asset value. Positive numbers show the reverse, the premium, or how much share prices stand above NAV. August data at 29/8/25 and September data at 30/9/25. Investment companies on the left have seen their discounts widen or premiums fall making their shares cheaper. Those on the right have seen their discounts fall or premiums rise to make them more expensive.

Fallen Foresight fund offers 11.6% yield 

The continued derating of listed renewables funds last month has left eight of the sector’s 18 investment companies on double-digit dividend yields. That creates a fertile ground for bargain-hunting income investors.

One of those eight, Foresight Environmental Infrastructure (FGEN), catches our eye at the bottom of our last table after its share price discount widened from nearly 25% to 33% in September. The valuation gap has widened slightly since then with the shares trailing nearly 35% below net asset value where they offer an 11.6% yield against this year’s 7.96p dividend target.

Remarkably, the shares have slipped further since a continuation vote on 18 September when 94% of shareholder votes on a 59% turnout were cast in favour of the 11-year-old company’s continuation. Just over 6% voted to wind down the fund, slightly less than the 7.3% who did so last year.

At 69p, FGEN has fallen nearly 20% since the end of July and the shares have more than halved from their peak three years ago at 133p, having launched at 100p in 2014. Anyone thinking of buying now needs to consider two things: whether there will be further falls in the price, eroding the benefit of the 1.99p quarterly dividend; and whether the payout could even be cut in response to sector-wide pressures such as falling power price forecasts, low wind speeds and irradiation and grid constraints.

On the latter point, the company says its dividend in the last financial year of 7.7p per share was 1.3 times covered by earnings and it has consistently raised the dividend every year since launch. It operates a highly diversified portfolio, generating revenues from anaerobic digestion, bioenergy and hydro as well as wind and solar power. It expects 57% of next year’s revenues will be fixed on government subsidy or long-term contract, providing good visibility. 

Moreover, following a strategic review in June, it is focused on core renewable energy assets with secure, long-term, inflation-linked revenues. As a result, it forecasts the future payouts will remain “healthily covered”.

In terms of the share price, FGEN holds a continuation vote if its shares trade below an average 10% discount over one year. That makes a further vote in 2026 very likely as things stand, providing a backstop that, if the derating continues, the company could be wound up and the value of its assets released. Meanwhile, the company is buying back its cheap shares having extended a £20m programme by £10m in March.

Written By QD News

Top 10 funds and trusts in ISAs

	Company Name	Place change
1	Royal London Short Term Money Mkt Y Acc (B8XYYQ8)	Unchanged
2	L&G Global Technology Index I Acc (B0CNH16)	Up 1
3	Artemis Global Income I Acc (B5ZX1M7)	Down 1
4	Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity A Acc (B4PQW15)	Unchanged
5	HSBC FTSE All-World Index C Acc (BMJJJF9)	Up 2
6	City of London Ord CTY0.00%	New (12th last week)
7	Vanguard FTSE Global All Cp Idx £ Acc (BD3RZ58)	Down 1
8	Scottish Mortgage Ord SMT2.07%	Down 3
9	Temple Bar Ord TMPL0.28%	New
10	Fidelity Index World P Acc (BJS8SJ3)	Unchanged

UK income trusts City of London Ord 

CTY and Temple Bar Ord TMPL0 have entered the top 10 table as FTSE 100 shares continue to surge.

Temple Bar, whose shares have beaten all other UK income funds and trusts so far in 2025, looks to target underpriced shares, while City of London is known, among other things, for a long record of increasing its dividends. Both recently traded on share price dividend yields north of 4%, though the sheer popularity of the trusts means shares in both also trade on premiums to the value of their underlying portfolios.

Royal London Short Term Money Mkt Y Acc (B8XYYQ8) tops the table, as it has done every week since early July.

Interest rates were held at 4% at the Bank of England’s last meeting in September, with the fund’s yield closely linked to the base rate. Money market funds may be held inside SIPPs, ISAs or general trading accounts.

Global tracker funds of different stripes remained popular, with the HSBC FTSE All-World Index C Acc (BMJJJF9), Vanguard FTSE Global All Cp Idx £ Acc (BD3RZ58) and Fidelity Index World P Acc (BJS8SJ3) funds all in the top 10. These offer cheap exposure to a portfolio of global shares: the HSBC fund has a yearly charge of 0.13%, while the Vanguard fund has a cost of 0.23% and Fidelity Index World charges 0.12 per cent.

Global trackers tend to have substantial exposure to the US equity market, but a more UK-focused global fund remains popular. Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity A Acc (B4PQW15), which has a fifth of its portfolio in bonds, has roughly half of its equity exposure in the US, with around a quarter in the UK.

Investors also continued to focus on tech and growth stocks, via the L&G Global Technology Index I Acc (B0CNH16) and Scottish Mortgage Ord 

SMT The latter focuses on future trends, from e-commerce to artificial intelligence, with top holdings including SpaceX, MercadoLibre and Amazon.

Exiting the table this week is Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% Equity A Acc (B41XG30).

The AI Economy’s Quiet Winners Yield Up to 11.7%

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: October 2025

The manic market just dumped business development companies (BDCs), again. These three dividend stocks paying up to 11.7% are poised to bounce back when sanity returns.

BDCs, which lend money to small businesses, are on the “outs” with the Wall Street suits after multiple soft jobs reports. The spreadsheet jockeys fret about an unemployment-induced economic slowdown and miss the real story: small businesses are making more money than ever thanks to AI.

Here is what’s actually happening in the Main Street economy:

• Employers—especially nimble small business owners—are implementing AI to streamline and even run their operations.
• With AI tools, fewer humans are needed.
• So, we are seeing soft jobs reports as companies rationally prioritize automation over human hiring.

Small business profits are popping. While the unemployment numbers scream slowdown, the actual economy is booming. Check out the Atlanta Fed’s most recent GDPNow estimate—it’s up almost 4%!

Atlanta Fed Says Economy is Cookin’

We’ve been on this beat for months here at Contrarian Outlook. Automation is not slowing the economy. It is making it leaner and wildly profitable. While payrolls cool, output keeps rising. That’s no recession—it’s an efficiency boom!

This is music to BDCs’ ears. These lenders profit when Main Street’s cash flow swells.

So, we thank knee-jerk sellers for giving us a deal on FS Credit Opportunities (FSCO), which yields 11.7% today. FSCO has been around for 10+ years but only traded publicly as a closed-end fund for the last two. CEF investors loathe newness, so FSCO fetched a discount to net asset value (NAV) until recently.

Portfolio manager Andrew Beckman and his team are skilled at “layering” credit—structuring loans with different levels of protection—so that FSCO is positioned to get paid back first even if credit conditions worsen. It’s an ideal fund to own if you were worried about the economy. This cash cow keeps collecting through slowdowns.

FSCO extends high-quality loans that are not subject to the daily whims of the public markets. These are private credit vehicles held by sophisticated investors who don’t care about recent job reports—they want their yield!

As do we income investors.

The vanilla dividend chasers finally found their way to FSCO this summer, sending it to a record 3% premium to NAV. But these weak hands fled when FSCO paid its monthly dividend (uh, the price drops because you just got paid, people!) and weak employment numbers weighed on the BDC sector.

The result? FSCO slipped from a 3% premium to a nifty 9% discount last week. Investors panicked but the strength of FSCO’s loans didn’t change:

FSCO Shares Went on Sale

FSCO continues to post strong credit metrics and cover its payout comfortably. Its high loan yields led Beckman and his management team to raise the monthly dividend multiple times this year:

FSCO Pays Monthly, Raises Often

FSCO looks good here, and it’s not alone. Ares Capital (ARCC), the largest BDC in America with $22 billion in assets, is killing it.

Ares is the big bully on the block—it sees the best deals before anyone else. And it shows. Non-accruals—loans that aren’t paying—remain a mere 2% of the portfolio, a hefty 20% below the industry average of 2.5%. No wonder ARCC’s net investment income (NII) has consistently covered its quarterly dividend, now $0.48 per share, with a small surplus each quarter!

And this bully loves economic turbulence. It thrived in 2020, growing book value through the Covid panic while smaller rivals stopped lending. And we have evidence that the punier BDCs are retrenching again, leaning into existing borrowers rather than pursuing new loans.

When the smaller fish throttle back, the bully turns up the volume. ARCC yields 9.5%, a payout supported by current income. That’s a rare combo of yield and quality in this market. We’ll keep collecting the digital checks.

ARCC’s Well-Covered Dividend

Last but not least, Main Street Capital (MAIN), is the steadiest grower in BDCLand. Not only has it paid monthly since 2008—hasn’t missed a beat—but it also adds quarterly “specials,” rewarding shareholders when portfolio income exceeds expectations.

MAIN invests in small, privately held businesses—between $25 million and $500 million in annual revenue—and takes both debt and equity stakes. This dual role lets it profit as a lender and as a partial owner when its companies thrive.

In the main, MAIN’s portfolio remains broad and balanced—about 190 companies across diverse industries, with no single position over 4%. That diversity keeps MAIN steady through economic cycles.

Since 2009, total annual dividends have jumped from $1.50 to more than $4 per share, a 170%+ climb that few serious dividend payers can match. The current yield sits around 6.8% today:

MAIN Regularly Raises Its Monthly Dividend

MAIN currently pays a generous 6.8%, with the majority delivered through dependable monthly payments. Check out this pretty payout picture:

MAIN pays monthly while ARCC “only” dishes its dividend quarterly.

CMPG/CMPI offer exposure to best-in-class managers in the investment company universe.

Overview

CT Global Managed Portfolio Trust provides exposure to attractive investment themes through two Portfolios of investment companies via two share classes: CMPG, which aims to deliver capital growth, and CMPI, which focuses on income. Since June 2025, the trust has been managed by Adam Norris and Paul Green, who succeeded long-standing manager Peter Hewitt, who will retire at the end of October. Together, the new managers bring 35 years of investment experience.

Since taking over, Adam and Paul have increased exposure to themes where they see strong opportunities, including US and emerging market equities, which they expect to deliver robust earnings growth. They have also added to private equity-focused investment companies where realisations are emerging, such as Oakley Capital Investments (OCI) in the growth share class. Finally, the managers have identified attractive total return potential in the AIC Infrastructure sector, topping up their holding in Pantheon Infrastructure (PINT) in both CMPG and CMPI portfolios.

Moreover, while the basic strategy remains unchanged, Adam and Paul aim to adopt a higher-conviction approach, holding fewer investment trusts in larger size positions. They also plan to increase the allocation to global equities while reducing the UK weighting. In fact, this process is already underway, with additions to JPMorgan Global Growth & Income (JGGI) across both share classes and the exit of Lowland Investment Company (LWI) and Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT) from CMPG’s portfolio.

Assuming no unforeseen circumstances, the board expects CMPI to pay a Dividend of at least 7.6p for the current financial year, implying a prospective yield of c. 6.5%. At the time of writing, CMPG and CMPI were trading at Discounts of 3.3% and 2% respectively.

Analyst’s View

The new managers’ plan to increase the allocation to global equities and to build higher-conviction portfolios over time is, in our view, an exciting development. This should enable both share classes to capture a broader opportunity set, particularly in faster-growing regions, while the stronger emphasis on the managers’ best ideas could enhance long-term performance and reduce overlaps, albeit with greater sensitivity to the performance of individual holdings.

CT Global Managed Portfolio Trust offers exposure to promising themes, including US and emerging market equities, which are expected to deliver robust earnings growth, as well as private equity strategies benefiting from realisations. In fact, Adam and Paul see significant pent-up value in private equity-focused closed-end funds, which could be unlocked when IPO activity resumes and M&A activity picks up. While CMPI captures these opportunities to a lesser extent due to its income mandate, we think it offers an attractive prospective yield of c. 6.5%, well above that of the FTSE All-Share Index and the average constituent of the AIC Global Equity Income and UK Equity Income sectors.

Finally, we note that several closed-end funds are still trading at wide discounts, particularly those focused on alternative assets. While this reflects the challenges these sectors have faced over the past three years, it could also mean that both CMPI and CMPG portfolios are well positioned to capture a potential recovery. In particular, we believe that closed-end funds in more interest rate-sensitive areas, such as renewable energy infrastructure, could benefit from a more supportive rate environment.

Bull

• Higher-conviction portfolios and greater global diversification could boost returns
• Offers exposure to promising growth themes
• Could benefit from a recovery in alternative-focused sectors

Bear

• Retirement of long-standing manager
• Trust of investment companies approach results in high overall cost of investment
• Gearing on underlying trusts and income share class can exaggerate

Source: Columbia Threadneedle Investments, as at 31/08/2025

The new managers also see strong total return opportunities in the infrastructure space and have introduced Pantheon Infrastructure (PINT) into both CMPG and CMPI portfolios. PINT provides exposure to infrastructure assets across North America, Europe, and the UK through co-investments. With its focus on areas such as data centres and other digital infrastructure, Adam and Paul see significant growth potential in PINT’s portfolio and believe that future realisations could be supported by private equity capital. Adam and Paul have also introduced Cordiant Digital Infrastructure (CORD) into CMPI’s portfolio. As of 16/09/2025, CORD holds six companies that own infrastructure assets embedded in the digital economy, including communication towers, fibre-optic networks, and data centres, primarily in Europe. The investment company follows a ‘buy, build and grow’ approach, aiming to acquire companies, develop them to increase revenues, and expand their asset base. Adam and Paul note that CORD is highly cash-generative, which has enabled the company to increase its dividend each year since its launch in 2021 (offering a yield of c. 4.5% at the time of writing), while also reinvesting to grow its capital base, providing attractive NAV growth prospects. Given its strong total return potential, Adam and Paul do not rule out introducing CORD into CMPG’s portfolio in the future.

Finally, the new managers have increased CMPI’s holding in BioPharma Credit (BPCR), which specialises in providing loans to companies in the life sciences industry. These companies have struggled to raise capital through equity, as investor appetite for higher-risk, speculative ventures has waned amid a higher interest rate environment. They have also faced regulatory and political risks, including the Trump administration’s plans to introduce drug price controls and the vaccine scepticism of Robert Kennedy Jr., the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. As a result, companies in the life sciences sector have become more reliant on debt. Adam and Paul also note that BPCR charges high interest on its loans, incentivising companies to repay early and incur substantial prepayment fees, which have historically been used to pay special dividends. At the time of writing, BPCR offered a prospective yield of c. 7%.

Having skin in the market is often a good way to build up your knowledge of Investment Trusts, so could be a starter option.

CMPG Higher risk as TR only.

CMPI Lower risk as even if your timing is wrong you still have the dividends to re-invest.

Or you could have a 60/40 split and re-balance as profit/losses occur.