Schroders Capital Global Innovation (INOV)

Schroders Capital Global Innovation Trust (INOV) has moved onto the next phase of its journey following a change to the investment policy. This has been marked with a name change from Schroder UK Public Private, as well as a change to the management team. Lead portfolio manager Tim Creed has now been joined by co-portfolio manager Harry Raikes. As a result of the change of policy, INOV will become a predominantly private equity vehicle, focussed on identifying long-term growth opportunities from a range of subsectors primarily within technology and healthcare industries and split across three sub-strategies: venture, growth, and life sciences (see Portfolio).

INOV remains on a wide Discount, though the board are taking steps to address this. Having completed their previous goal of reducing the trust’s gearing level, they have now made a commitment to utilising cash to conduct share buybacks, including using one quarter of any capital generated from the sale of legacy assets to buy shares back. On top of this, the board has introduced a continuation vote in 2025, and every subsequent five-year period, to offer investors the opportunity to wind up the trust should they wish.

The managers point to the independent valuation team having downgraded valuations of the trust’s holdings in order to factor in weakness in public equity markets which they believe may offer an effective ‘double discount’ on the trust (see Performance). The process of populating the portfolio with global, private companies with best-in-class offerings is underway which they believe marks the beginning of a new chapter for the trust.