JohnBaronPortfolios.co.uk

Welcome to The Two Johns, the investment trust podcast brought to you by the website www.johnbaronportfolios.co.uk. Each month, John Baron joins former Investors' Chronicle editor John Hughman to discuss the big themes dominating the investment landscape and the important issues affecting the sector, while explaining how these are influencing the way the website's ten live investment trust portfolios are being managed.
In episode 15, they set out the portfolio positioning for 2026 amid stubborn inflation risks, subdued growth, and a more fragile geopolitical backdrop. They explain why they remain underweight equities (especially the US), why value-led markets such as the UK and Europe look increasingly compelling, and why the AI-fuelled ‘Magnificent Seven’ concentration raises uncomfortable echoes of past booms. The pair also highlight favoured themes including healthcare/biotech, uranium, and the role of precious metals in preserving capital.
The episode then turns to the evolution of the ‘Green’ portfolio into the new ‘Sage’ portfolio - broadening the remit beyond the environment to include a wider set of investments promoting social good, from equality and education to infrastructure and social housing.

BIPS aims to deliver a high level of income with thepotential for capital growth from a diversified portfolio of corporate bonds. The trust primarily invests in sterling and other major-currency bonds issued by companies, combining higher-yielding credits with investment-grade holdings to balance risk and return. Its closed-ended structure allows the use of modest gearing - typically around 10–15% - to enhance income and flexibility, as well as access to less liquid opportunities such as subordinated bank and insurance debt not available to private investors. BIPS also targets a set dividend - currently 12.25p per annum, equivalent to around a 7% yield - supported by predictable coupon income from its portfolio of around 150 issuers.
In this interview, manager Rhys Davies discusses how BIPSis currently positioned following the recent inflation spike and subsequent bond-market volatility. He explains the trust’s preference for corporate over government bonds, highlighting exposure to household names like Boots and Morrisons alongside smaller building societies and bank capital instruments such as Lloyds and Newcastle. He explains the trust’s cautious but opportunity-aware stance, and how a higher weighting in investment-grade debt provides ample income without taking undue risk. And he outlines the team’s bottom-up credit process, and how it has identified successful contrarian trades that have delivered capital upside.

MYI is a diversified global equity income investmenttrust managed by abrdn’s Samantha Fitzpatrick and Martin Connaghan. With a globally unconstrained remit, the trust aims to deliver an above-average dividend yield alongside long-term real growth in both income and capital. The managers build a high-conviction portfolio of around 50 high-quality businesses from across developed and emerging markets, all expected to pay attractive, sustainable and growing dividends. While the mandate allows selective use of fixed income when valuations are especially compelling, the portfolio today is overwhelmingly equity-focused, with holdings spread across sectors such as financials, technology, consumer and industrials. The emphasis throughout is on valuation discipline, balance sheet strength and genuine underlying cash generation to ensure the dividend is covered by income earned from the underlying companies.
In this interview Samantha and Martin discuss how theyhave steered the trust through a period of persistent macro uncertainty, including inflation, shifting interest-rate expectations, political tensions and volatile currencies. They explain the dual objective of delivering dependable income and attractive capital growth, and how portfolio flexibility allows them to blend higher-yielding names with lower- yielding but faster-growing businesses. The managers talk through their disciplined approach to valuation - trimming winners and adding to fundamentally sound laggards -their enduring conviction in emerging markets, and the rationale behind key positions in financials and technology. They also outline recent portfolio changes, including recycling from bonds into equities and new stock ideas, and explain why a consistent, bottom-up process remains their best defence against an unpredictable world.

Welcome toThe Two Johns, the investment trust podcast brought to you by the website www.johnbaronportfolios.co.uk. Each month,John Baron joins former Investors' Chronicle editor John Hughman to discuss thebig themes dominating the investment landscape and the important issuesaffecting the sector, while explaining how these are influencing the way thewebsite's ten live investment trust portfolios are being managed.
In episode14, they look at economic pessimism in the UK, how the UK market isoutperforming despite the gloom and why it’s disconnected from the domesticeconomy. They look at why value investing is back in favour and how historicvaluation discounts are creating real value, before putting all together toexplain how the portfolios are achieving diversification in a potentiallystagflation world.

Formerly Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies, AAS is an investment company focusing on high-quality small caps across Asia ex-Japan through a concentrated, high-conviction portfolio of roughly 50 names, built from deep, on-the-ground research and a quality-first philosophy. The portfolio is deliberately differentiated from its benchmark, the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Small Cap Index, and diversified across India, China/Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Korea, with selective use of gearing. Current positioning leans into domestic growth (notably India) while owning export winners in Taiwan/Korea, aiming to capture Asia’s structural trends while managing risk through thoughtful portfolio construction.
In the interview, portfolio manager Gabriel Sacks explains the evolution of the trust's strategy, including a rebalancing of geographic exposure towards North Asia and asset-light businesses, as well as a deepened focus on the China market and a detailed investment process emphasizing quality, valuation, and active portfolio management. He outlines the portfolio's geographic allocation across India, China and Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan and Korea, driven by themes like middle-class growth, advanced manufacturing, digitalization, and green energy infrastructure. And he explains his positive long-term outlook for Asian small caps as the “growth engine of the new world,” and why exposure to domestic consumption helps buffer the ongoing impact of tariff turmoil.