Monthly Roundup: Why is SMT popular, can biotech M&A continue and who thinks it’s an AI bubble?

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 October, brought to you in association with Schroders. 

In news, Ryan looks at whether the rollover into an active ETF could indicate a future for the asset class, as well as a re-entry from Saba into the lowly valued smaller companies sector. Plus, we look at what the recent flurry of takeouts for International Biotechnology (IBT) could mean for the future of sector.

The results of the month had a strong Asian flavour, with the introduction of some shareholder friendly measures from Pacific Assets (PAC), another stellar Ashoka India (AIE) year as well as how corporate governance reforms have supported Schroder Japan (SJG). Elsewhere, David looks at Octopus Renewables Infrastructure (ORIT)’s recent results and their plan for the next five years.

Next, Jo reviews her podcast with Emily Fletcher of BlackRock Frontiers (BRFI) and why the market offers correlation benefits, before going on to recap her chat with Olivia Markham of BlackRock World Mining (BRWM) in light of the remarkable gold run. These two podcasts are interspersed with David’s summary of his discussion with Andrew Zimmermann of Molten Ventures (GROW), including running the rule of the exciting investment themes in the portfolio.

Meanwhile, David also picks out the highlights from his asset allocators piece, including whether they think we’re in a bubble and how investors can mitigate the risks of one.

Returning to our regular features of most bought and sold trusts, we look at a couple of newcomers onto the list which is again led by Scottish Mortgage (SMT), which our team discuss the merits of and perhaps the surprising reason Ryan doesn’t own it…

00:00 Introduction  00:25 What’s to come 00:52 Middlefield’s Active ETF 02:52 Saba re-enters MTU 05:39 IBT’s M&A bonanza 07:50 PAC’s results & shareholder friendly measures 10:31 AIE’s stellar annual results 12:48 SJG results among corporate governance changes 14:07 ORIT’s results and five-year plan 15:50 BRFI’s frontier market opportunities  17:09 Andrew Zimmerman on GROW and Europe’s VC opportunities  19:33 BRWM and the gold rise 21:06 Our asset allocators’ views on the AI bubble  22:41 The most bought and sold shares and trusts 24:18 Why is SMT popular? 28:39 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 05/11/2025.