Morningstar

The Best- and Worst-Performing Investment Trusts in November 2025

Biotechnology trusts outperformed, while private equity trusts struggled.

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Key Takeaways

  • Shares in the best-performing investment trust rose 23% in November, while the worst performer lost 27%.
  • The UK’s top two investment trusts by size, 3i Group and Scottish Mortgage, lost ground last month.
  • Of the 200 trusts surveyed by Morningstar, 109 rose in November, six of these by double digits.

Each month, we check in on the returns of UK-listed investment trusts. In November, healthcare and biotechnology trusts dominated the list of best performers, while private equity, tech and small-cap focused trusts made the list of worst performers.

There was a wide gap between the best and worst-performing trusts: shares in JPMorgan Emerging Europe, Middle East & Africa JEMA gained 23%, while 3i Group shed 27%.

The Best-Performing Investment Trusts in November

JPMorgan Emerging Europe, Middle East & Africa, formerly known as JPMorgan Russian Securities, was famous for being one of the first vehicles to invest in Russian equities in the 1990s and made spectacular gains as the country’s economy opened up.

But the trust’s NAV fell over 90% on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the portfolio’s value remains down 92% since then. The company’s Russian assets remain frozen and its top holdings now include Middle Eastern financial stocks.

The investment trust’s share price has recovered as the fund’s other assets, including Gold Fields GFI, have performed well. The gold miner alone has increased 197% year to date. The trust’s shares are trading at a 316.80% premium to its NAV.

2025: A Strong Year for Biotechnology

Biotechnology and healthcare trusts dominate the list from a category perspective, accounting for five of the 10 best performers, continuing their run seen in October. The equity biotechnology category has an average grown of 38% year to date in GBP terms, outperforming the Morningstar Global Biotechnology Index, which has increased 18%.

When evaluating investment trusts, investors should focus on long-term returns across multiple years and market cycles. However, short-term returns can provide valuable information about biases within strategies.

Of over 200 trusts in our dataset, 109 rose over the month, six of these by double digits.

The Best-Performing Investment Trusts of November 2025

  • JPMorgan Emerging Europe, Middle East & Africa JEMA
  • UIL Limited UTL
  • Castelnau Group CGL
  • CT UK High Income CHIB
  • International Biotechnology IBT

How the 5 Best-Performing Investment Trusts Performed

JPMorgan Emerging Europe, Middle East & Africa JEMA

Over the month, the £26 million JPMorgan Emerging EMEA rose 22.69% on a share price basis. Meanwhile, its net asset value (NAV) fell 1.27% in November, outperforming its benchmark, the Morningstar Emerging Markets TME Index, which fell -3.32%. The trust’s share price was trading at a 316.80% premium to its NAV at the end of November. Year to date, the JPMorgan trust’s share price was up 31.78% with a five-year annualized loss of 13.58%. The NAV has grown 17.10% so far this year with a loss of 36.43% annualized over five years.

UIL UTL

The £262 million UIL rose 18.37% on a share price basis over the month while the NAV fell 5.44%. The Investment Capital Management-run trust was trading at an 18.70% discount to its NAV at the end of November. Year to date, the trust’s share price has jumped 35.76% while the NAV has grown 29.47%. Over a five-year annualized period, the share price has increased 5.05% while trust’s assets were down 4.60%.

Castelnau Group CGL

Castelnau Group’s share price grew 18.37% over the month, and on Nov. 28, it traded at a 9.41% discount to its NAV, which remained stable over the month. The £337 million trust was down 2.66% in share price and 11.78% in NAV terms in the year to date. The Phoenix Asset Management trust, which launched in 2021, has a three-year annualized share price of 7.82%, while assets were up 10.21%.

CT UK High Income CHIB

CT UK High Income’s share price rose 11.40% in November while the net asset value grew 1.16%. The NAV outperformed the Morningstar UK Adventurous Target Allocation Index by 1.19 percentage points. At the end of the month, the £127 million investment trust was trading at a 1.00% discount to its NAV. Year to date, the share price was up 24.07% and the NAV rose 20.50%. Over a five-year period, the Columbia Threadneedle trust’s share price was up 10.72% on an annualized basis, while net assets grew 9.49%.

International Biotechnology IBT

The £326 million International Biotechnology’s share price rose 10.70% over the month, higher than the NAV, which rose 8.09%, leaving shares at a 9.46% discount. The NAV outperformed the Morningstar Global Biotechnology Index by 5.30 percentage points. Year to date, the Schroders-managed trust has seen a share price jump of 43.14% so far this year, with net assets growing 40.29%. Over an annualized five-year period, International Biotechnology shares were up 7.49% and the NAV has grown 9.43%.

Performance of the 10 Worst Investment Trusts in November

The list of worst performers for November 2025 was led by the UK’s biggest investment trust, 3i Group III, down 27.41% in share price terms. The £28 billion private equity investor has been the overall best performer over the past decade, and is still trading at an 11.97% premium, but this is down from a premium of over 50% a month ago.

Private equity trusts featured heavily at the bottom, including last month’s best performer Seraphim Space Investment SSIT, while other categories that struggled in November included UK small-caps and technology. The UK’s second-largest trust, Scottish Mortgage SMT, was the sixth worst performer over the month, and the worst performer among trusts rated by Morningstar’s analysts.

What Are Investment Trusts and How to Discounts Work?

Trusts are closed-end funds, allowing exposure to more illiquid assets such as unlisted companies, or niche sectors including airline leasing, music royalties and renewable energy storage. Unlike open-end funds, trusts can also use gearing or borrowing to enhance returns.

Investment trusts are public companies whose shares trade on the London Stock Exchange, priced in real time. This makes it easy to track their daily performance.

How We Calculate UK Investment Trust Returns

There are two main ways to calculate investment trust performance. With real-time pricing it’s easy to see the daily share price. Another way is to look at the net asset value, or NAV, which is the value of the trust’s underlying assets. The share prices trade at a discount or premium to their NAV, a measure of whether trusts are in or out of favor with investors.

For example, one of the top performers, UIL, fell 5.44% over the month in NAV terms. In share price terms, however, the trust grew 18.37%, a gain rather than a loss for the theoretical investor who bought shares on Nov. 1 and held them until Nov. 30.

Data in this article is taken from Morningstar Direct.

  • Net asset value is determined by taking the change in NAV at the end of the period, reinvesting all income and capital gains distributions during that month, and dividing by the starting NAV.
  • Share price, or market-price return, is calculated by taking the change in the trust’s close market price, reinvesting all income and capital-gains distributions at the ex-date during the period, and dividing by the starting close market price.
  • Discount is based on the ex par NAV, which excludes income and assumes debt repayments are made at par value.
  • We have also excluded trusts without a disclosed fund size, trusts below £20 million, venture capital trusts (VCTs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

The author or authors do not own shares in any securities mentioned in this article. Find out about Morningstar's editorial policies.

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