Ideas for your ISA 2026 courtesy of Kepler Trust Intelligence

Join our series of webinars throughout March and hear from some of the top fund managers talking about the investment outlook for a wide range of asset classes and geographies.

Day 1 – Greencoat UK Wind | Alan Ray

The Greencoat UK Wind (UKW) team discuss the trust’s recent results, and, more broadly, the importance of onshore and offshore wind to the overall energy mix for the UK. They spend some time considering some of the opportunities to upgrade and re-power the current portfolio and look at the landscape for further development of the sector, noting the success of the UK government’s most recent auction for new projects. They also touch upon their capital allocation policy, designed as a response to the wide discount,

Day 2 – Bankers | Josef Licsauer

In the session, Richard Clode discusses how the Bankers Investment Trust (BNKR) seeks to balance global equity exposure, avoiding strong growth or value tilts and instead focussing on bottom-up stock selection. Whilst geopolitical developments remain an important backdrop, diversification across regions and sectors is central to managing risk and identifying companies capable of delivering sustainable growth. Artificial intelligence is a key theme, with Richard highlighting how the technology is evolving through several stages, producing new market leaders and disrupting incumbents, though emphasising that attractive investments can still be found in companies with strong fundamentals and reasonable valuations.

Day 3 – JPMorgan European Growth & Income | Alan Ray

JPMorgan European Growth & Income’s (JEGI) manager Timothy Lewis discusses the team’s investment process, and how they harness the resources available to them at JPMorgan. He also looks at some of the companies and sectors that have driven JEGI’s very strong performance, at some of the ‘off benchmark’ small companies in the portfolio and considers some of the bigger picture factors, such as valuations, fiscal stimulus and energy prices, that are shaping investors’ approach to investing in Europe.

Day 4 – City of London | Josef Licsauer

In this webinar, manager Job Curtis discussed how City of London Investment Trust (CTY) combines a long-term record of dividend growth with strong total returns, underpinned by a valuation-driven, income-focussed investment approach. He highlighted the trust’s diversified exposure across sectors and geographies, emphasising cash-generative companies with strong balance sheets that support dividends and capital expenditure. Job also considered the impact of macroeconomic factors, including UK interest rates, Middle East tensions affecting oil and energy, and global growth dynamics. Overall, Job reinforced CTY’s focus on downside protection, selective stock opportunities and consistent income delivery in a challenging market environment.

Day 5 – Rights & Issues | Ryan Lightfoot-Aminoff

As a new presenter to our audience, Rights & Issues’ (RIII) manager Matt Cable began the presentation with some background on the trust. This included a brief history lesson of the 63-year-old vehicle, which focusses on UK smaller companies, and the journey to being under the leadership of Matt and the Jupiter firm. He went on to describe his process, which contains four elements including a top-down overlay to help mitigate risks, although stock selection is predominantly bottom-up. Matt discussed the ongoing impact of M&A which has continued to be a factor in the UK smaller companies market, and has been a notable supporting factor to performance in the past year. However, the market’s disregard for quality has been a headwind, with Matt discussing a number of examples both in the presentation and again in the Q&A session.

Day 6 – GCP Infrastructure Investments | Alan Ray

GCP Infrastructure Investments’ (GCP) manager Philip Kent discusses the fund’s infrastructure debt strategy, which allows it to pay a high dividend from a diversified portfolio of debt investments across different sectors of UK infrastructure. He delves into some of the details of how loans are structured and assessed, and compares and contrasts GCP’s investments with private credit instruments, which generally have a much higher loss ratio than GCP has achieved. He also brings to life one of the larger projects, a biomass power generation plant, looking at some of the specific operational and financial aspects.

Day 7 – International Biotechnology | Thomas McMahon

Ailsa Craig, one of the two managers of International Biotechnology Trust (IBT), joined us to discuss biotech’s extraordinary rally over the past year. We spoke to her a few days after the fifth anniversary of her and her co-manager’s tenure, over which time they have outperformed their benchmark and the other three specialist biotechnology trusts – just as they have done over the past 12 months. Ailsa took us through the factors that have lined up to create a favourable environment for biotech, and how her and co-manager Marek Poszepczynski are looking to exploit it. She talked us through their concept of ‘Biotech 2.0’, and why it’s so central to how the managers are positioned and have been generating alpha.

Day 8 – Rockwood Strategic | Ryan Lightfoot-Aminoff

Richard Staveley, manager of Rockwood Strategic (RKW) began the presentation with a quick summary of his investment approach, describing himself as an unashamed value manager looking to exploit the considerable inefficiencies within the UK micro-cap space. He outlined what sort of stocks he looks for which have the potential to double over a three to five-year time horizon. Richard’s highly active approach has resulted in a very concentrated portfolio and much of the remaining presentation focussed on the investment case of many of his holdings, ranging from newer positions to those with considerable upside supported by near-term catalysts.

Day 9 – Vietnam Enterprise Investments | Thomas McMahon

Thao Ngo Thanh and Thuy Anh Nguyen from Dragon Capital presented the case for Vietnam and for Vietnam Enterprise Investments (VEIL). They highlighted the exceptional returns from the Vietnamese market last year, illustrating robustness in the market in the light of the volatility surrounding ‘Liberation Day’ and Trump’s tariff announcements. Vietnam’s authorities are implementing far-reaching reforms which should be very supportive for economic growth and stock market returns, while FTSE emerging markets inclusion later this year could see inflows.

Day 10 – Schroder Real Estate | Alan Ray

Schroder Real Estate’s (SREI) manager Bradley Biggins looks at the UK commercial real estate sector and shows how even though the last five years have seen some ups and downs for capital values, the right buildings and sectors have seen steady rental growth and strong tenant demand. He shows how a focus on making buildings more sustainable through improvements in energy efficiency, lighting and heating and installation of PV solar is leading to buildings that attract stronger tenants at higher rents on longer leases. He also discusses how the trust’s focus on higher income has led to its long-term outperformance of the benchmark, and looks at the future capacity to grow rents, and therefore potentially the dividend.

Day 11 – CT Private Equity | William Heathcoat Amory

Andrew Carnwath, manager of CT Private Equity Trust (CTPE) outlined the three key features of the trust, which have together helped the trust deliver amongst the strongest absolute returns of trusts across all sectors over the past ten years. Andrew highlighted that the opportunity set presented by small and mid sized private companies is enormous, and much greater than listed markets. The partnership approach, and long-term investment horizon of private equity means that managers are truly incentivised to deliver results for investors. And finally, the historic results of private equity backed companies have tended to exceed those of quoted indices. CTPE gives investors an easy access point for exposure to a portfolio of small and mid sized, profitable private equity backed companies with strong growth prospects. Andrew ran through examples of some of the highly innovative, niche businesses which CTPE is currently invested in, as well as those that have recently been sold from the portfolio.

Day 12 – BlackRock World Mining | Thomas McMahon

Olivia Markham, co-manager of BlackRock World Mining (BRWM), talked us through some of the key drivers behind a great year for the trust. Gold was an area of focus, with structural support for the metal thanks to investors’ aversion to fiat currency. We discussed the new sources of demand for commodities, and the supportive industry trends behind the equities. Olivia also talked us through then stunning returns from one private investment which was sold last year.

Day 13 – Schroder Japan | Josef Licsauer

In this session, we heard from Masaki, lead manager on the Schroder Japan (SJG) trust. He walked us through an update on the trust covering areas he sees as good value but also explained his preference to avoid proxy style business, instead seeking businesses where valuation and fundamentals are misaligned, with improving returns, stronger balance sheets or better governance not yet fully reflected in the share price. He also walked us through the key themes shaping Japan today, from the impact of Japan’s first female Prime Minister and increased defense spending to Japan’s role in the ever evolving AI eco-system.

Day 14 – BlackRock Latin American | Thomas McMahon

Sam Vecht, co-manager of BlackRock Latin American (BRLA), took us on a quick tour of a highly diverse continent which is benefitting from a number of strong tailwinds. Latin America is benefitting from favourable dynamics in internal politics, international relations and commodity demand, and has been overlooked by investors for many years. Sam discussed some surprising statistics and what they mean for investment prospects.

Day 15 – Seraphim Space | Ryan Lightfoot-Aminoff

Seraphim Space (SSIT) had its debut webinar towards the end of the month. CIO and co-founder James Bruegger started with a blockbuster claim that the investment opportunity in SpaceTech could be bigger than the opportunity in AI. To justify this, James gave an overview of the sector, how the economics have now triggered an inflection point meaning the cost to get to space has fallen dramatically, and therefore the potential for space technology is so much higher. To demonstrate how SSIT capitalizes on this, he discussed three companies in his portfolio, including the largest, ICEYE, and how a mixture of defense, GPS and government spending is driving revenue growth to support the strong NAV and share price returns the trust has experienced in the past couple of years.

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