Monthly Roundup: Meme coins infiltrate investment trusts, PE buys PE and boardroom battery battles

Join Jo Groves, Ryan Lightfoot-Aminoff and David Brenchley from Kepler Trust Intelligence for a roundup of all the news that matters to investment trust investors in July, brought to you in association with Schroders.

In news, Ryan discusses the shifting outlook for the sector, with discounts narrowing and the M&A trend spreading out to newer asset classes. Next, we also shine the light on a new wave of activist activity and what is shaping up to be a boardroom battle at Gore Street Energy (GSF), before turning our attention to Schroder British Opportunities (SBO), which announced a change of strategy in its results as well as a possible boon from the IPO market.

Elsewhere in results, David talks through the highlights of Schroder European Real Estate (SERE), and some interesting developments in the industrials space. Back over the channel, David discussed highlights of his podcast with Bradley Biggins of Schroder Real Estate (SREI), who discussed the evolving UK commercial property market and the outlook for rental growth. Later on, David also ran through the highlights of his chat with colleague Josef Licsauer about China, in particular Baillie Gifford China Growth (BGCG), and whether the recent woes or stimulus measures will win out in the long-term.

Moving on, Jo talked through the highlights of her interview with Richard Staveley of Rockwood Strategic (RKW), discussing some of his best performers, including how the illiquidity in the micro-cap space can be a source of alpha for his strategy. Later on, she summarises her chat with the managers of International Biotechnology (IBT), and how their outlook has changed in light of Trump 2.0.

Jo’s final interview was with Masaki Taketsume of Schroder Japan (SJG), including a chat on the portfolio itself and the prospects for the country in a world of tariffs. Next, David discusses our regular feature of the most bought and sold shares and trusts in the past month. However, this month saw a surprising new inclusion focussing on meme coins.

Lastly, Jo summarises some of the mid-year outlooks that came out in the month, which includes the shift from investing in the US to Europe, as a sign of a possible unwinding of the US exceptionalism trade. David picks up on this, discussing the stats behind some potential mean reversion in the trade, and what that means going forward.

00:00 Introduction

00:32 Narrowing discounts

01:23 Updates on activism

02:34 Gore Street Energy battle

03:51 M&A in PE

05:20 SBO results & news

07:11 SERE results

08:54 SREI webinar insights

11:04 Rockwood allocation

13:42 China outlook

15:42 Biotech and Trump 2.0

18:21 Highlights from Schroder Japan

20:27 Most popular shares & trusts

23:30 Summary of mid-year outlooks

25:09 Unwinding of US exceptionalism

29:10 Risk warning

Special thanks to our sponsors at Schroders, whose support makes this podcast possible - click here to view all of our research on the Schroders investment trust range.

This podcast was recorded on 29/07/2025 & 06/08/2025.