Kepler Trust Intelligence, the UK’s leading source of investment trust research for private investors, has published its 2025 investment trust ratings, celebrating the top investment trusts in the Growth, Income and Alternative Income categories.
Kepler Trust Intelligence’s proprietary, quantitative rating system is designed to highlight trusts which have demonstrated attractive and consistent performance characteristics over the long-term, using the advantages of the investment trust structure to benefit shareholders. The ratings consider performance over a five-year period, giving a detailed analysis that takes into account risk, the area of investment, fund objectives, and performance against a benchmark.
The ratings are updated annually by Kepler Trust Intelligence analysts and are wholly unbiased by commercial interests, recognising trusts based purely on performance in three categories: Growth, Income and Alternative Income.[1]
Thomas McMahon, Head of Investment Companies Research at Kepler Partners, commented, “The investment trust sector tends to attract the best managers; the structure gives managers plenty of flexibility to generate alpha, while the closed-ended nature means the management contracts are highly prized by fund groups.
Our ratings reward the outstanding performers in three key categories and are designed to recognise those managers who have done particularly well to generate outperformance and mitigate the market risk during a highly volatile period over the past five years.”
Growth Rated Funds
New Growth rating winners for 2025 include AVI Japan Opportunity (AJOT) and Vietnam Enterprise Investments (VEIL). Of note, Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) again achieved a rating, despite challenging market conditions. FCSS has done very well at limiting its exposure to the Chinese market’s downside and capturing the upside, and this has contributed to positive five-year performance while the Chinese market is down.
Income Rated Funds
Four of the trusts to have won an Income rating utilise an enhanced dividend policy, pointing to a growing trend in the industry and suggesting that, over the medium term, these policies are effective in providing attractive dividend growth.
A number of UK small-cap trusts have been awarded ratings in this category, including Aberforth Smaller Companies (ASL) – ASL is one of the few pure ‘value’ equity strategies remaining in the investment trust sector and has performed very well following the pandemic.
Alternative Income Rated Funds
The Alternative Income rating looks at relevant sectors for trusts that have managed to deliver a flat or stable NAV along with dividend growth over the past five years. For the first time, the number of trusts rated in this category has fallen – with only nine trusts qualifying, down from 14 last year – reflecting the impact of an interest rate shock on the valuations of unlisted portfolios, financing costs and net cash yields.
However, Greencoat UK Wind (UKW), Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) and BBGI Global Infrastructure (BBGI) have navigated through the turmoil to retain their ratings in 2025.
| Trust | Association of Investment Companies (AIC) Sector | Yield (%) |
| Foresight Environmental Infra | Renewable Energy Infrastructure | 10.7 |
| Foresight Solar | Renewable Energy Infrastructure | 10.4 |
| Bluefield Solar Income Fund | Renewable Energy Infrastructure | 9.5 |
| Renewables Infrastructure Grp | Renewable Energy Infrastructure | 8.7 |
| CVC Income & Growth GBP | Debt – Loans & Bonds | 8.1 |
| Greencoat UK Wind | Renewable Energy Infrastructure | 7.8 |
| BBGI Global Infrastructure | Infrastructure | 6.9 |
| Ecofin Global Utilities & Infra | Infrastructure Securities | 4.7 |
| 3i Infrastructure | Infrastructure | 4.0 |
Find more detail on this year’s ratings here.
