THE TRUSTS THAT CAN BE WORTH RISK

THERE are 20 stock marketlisted investment trusts currently set up to invest in unquoted companies. Falling under the collective label of ‘private equity’, key details on all 20 can be found on the website of the Association of Investment Companies at: theaic.co.uk.

Moira O’Neill, head of personal finance at

Interactive Investor, says such trusts ‘remain the best way for investors who want to access the higher risk, higher reward world of unquoteds’. She adds: ‘Private equity managers will often take a seat at the board table of the companies they invest in. This is active management at its most hands on.’

One trust she likes is Pantheon International that invests in a mix of unquoted companies and funds run by other private equity specialists. ‘With a global portfolio,’ she says, ‘it gives exposure to some of the best private equity managers in the world’.

It’s also a trust liked by

Jason Hollands of wealth manager Tilney who also recommends Oakley Capital and BMO Private Equity.

An alternative approach, says AJ Bell’s Laura Suter, is to invest in the country’s biggest investment trust, Scottish Mortgage. Part of the FTSE100 Index, this

£8.7 billion trust – managed by Baillie Gifford – has some 21 per cent of its assets in unlisted companies. London Stock Exchange identification numbers: Oakley Capital (B23DL39) Pantheon International (0414850); Scottish Mortgage (BLDYK61).