Baillie Gifford trio among top ten performing trusts

Scottish funds house Baillie Gifford was behind three of the top ten performing investment trusts of 2017, delivering returns of nearly 50 per cent for investors, according to new figures.

Fund analysts at Morningstar Direct found that the Edinburgh-headquartered firm’s Pacific Horizon, Shin Nippon and Scottish Mortgage trusts all made the highest ranking list.

The Edinburgh-based Independent Investment Trust also made the top ten, with manager Max Ward achieving returns of 48.5 per cent for investors thanks to strong share performances from the likes of tonic maker Fever-Tree.

Asia-focused trusts dominate Morningstar Direct’s list for 2017. The Pacific Horizon trust, managed by Roderick Snell, has returned 47.2 per cent in 2017.

The bulk of its investments are in China and South Korea, with holdings including Alibaba and Tencent.

Shin Nippon – which means New Japan – and which is managed by Praveen Kumar, returned 45.6 per cent by investing in Japanese smaller companies.

Scottish Mortgage, the third Baillie Gifford-run trust in the top ten and managed by James Anderson and Tom Slater, returned 42.3 per cent to add to its already impressive long-term returns helped by investments in tech giants including Amazon.

JPMorgan’s Chinese trust was the best performer in the list, returning 52.4 per cent.

Other top performers included Atlantis Japan Growth, India Capital Growth and Vietnam Enterprise, which achieved returns of 42.7 per cent, 42.2 per cent and 42.1 per cent respectively for shareholders.