Your vote counts: the investment trust AGMs in August 2023

Kepler Trust Intelligence picks out three investment trust AGMs of note.

It will be a quieter month for annual general meetings (AGMs) in the investment trust world this August, with many having published full-year results earlier in the year and summer typically being more subdued for obvious reasons.

Nonetheless, some major investment trusts are still holding their AGMs next month. These are worth being aware of as they host votes that will dictate how a trust is run and provide an opportunity to get an update from the managers. Perhaps most importantly, investors have the ability to vote on key decisions – an important feature of all investing that many private investors tend not to partake in.

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To give you a taste of which trusts are hosting their AGMs, and to get an idea of what sorts of things they vote on, here are three trusts holding their meetings next month.

JPMorgan Global Core Real Assets

As the name suggests JPMorgan Global Core Real Assets (LSE:JARA) invests in real assets, such as real estate and infrastructure, which have all suffered due to rising interest rates. The trust is still seeing growth in income from the underlying portfolio but it is trading at a nearly 30% discount nonetheless.

At its AGM next month, shareholders will be voting on whether to reappoint the existing directors. Of more interest to investors may be the votes on approving a buyback mechanism, which should serve to prevent a large-scale widening of the discount, and approval to continue to paying a quarterly dividend.

Oryx International Growth

Despite its name, Oryx International Growth (LSE:OIG) primarily invests in companies at the smallest end of the UK market. The trust has been one of the top performers in the sector over the past decade, although – like other small-cap funds – has seen its discount widen over the past 18 months. Next month’s AGM will see investors voting to approve the re-election of the board of directors. The trust's shareholders will also vote to approve a share buyback mechanism that the board aims to use to manage OIG’s discount.

Lindsell Train Investment Trust

Probably the most well-known investment trust holding its AGM next month. Lindsell Train (LSE:LTI) is unique in that approximately 40% of its NAV is equity in the Lindsell Train asset management group, with the remainder in quality-growth stocks. The trust is the only way investors can access equity in Lindsell Train, which is a privately held company.

The main votes to be conscious of here are the trust’s ability to issue new shares and, like the two other trusts discussed here, to buy back shares for discount management. LTI is currently trading at a 5% discount, which is unusual given the fund’s shares have, on average, traded at a premium every month bar one for the past decade.

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