Timber, German property and small caps: Three alternative trusts make their mark

Despite their age, investment trusts are becoming ever more specialist and diverse. Nick Greenwood, manager of the Miton Worldwide Growth investment trust, highlights the closed-ended opportunities in timber, German property, and UK smaller company specialists

For those prepared to do their homework, there is a corner of the UK stock market where bargains abound. Closed-ended investment companies, the best known example being the investment trust, have been around since the rule of Queen Victoria. They were the earliest form of collective, however, this sector has been usurped by its younger cousin, the open-ended fund which first appeared on the eve of the Second World War.  There are about two and a half thousand companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange, around 400 of these are closed-ended funds, however they only represent a very s...