Japan is emerging from decades of deflation into a new era of structural growth. This session explores how Baillie Gifford’s differentiated, long-term approach is capturing value in a market driven by innovation, digital disruptors, and evolving demographics. Discover why Japan’s equity landscape is transforming and how investors can benefit from this shift. 

Workshop Objectives:
•    Understand the Structural Trends Shaping Japan’s Investment Landscape
Learn how changing demographics, inflation dynamics, and governance reforms are redefining opportunities in Japan.
•    Explore High-Conviction Themes Driving Growth
Gain insights into key portfolio themes such as digital ecosystems, healthcare innovation, automation, and IP monetisation in gaming.

Company Profile: Baillie Gifford’s sole business is investment management. Since the company was founded in 1908 it has been a partnership. Today it is owned by 59 partners all of whom work in the business.
We believe that the best investment ideas spring from thinking about future possibilities, not short-term probabilities. We set no barriers to the imagination of our investors, encouraging fresh perspectives and the use of diverse sources of information. We term ourselves Actual Investors.
We currently manage or advise some £197bn on behalf of clients worldwide. Whilst we are predominantly an institutional manager (circa 80% of FUM), we offer an extensive range of investment trusts and open-ended funds to UK wealth managers and intermediaries. 

Join Muzo Kayacan, CFA - Director, Portfolio Manager and Head of EMEA Product Strategy Systematic Active Equity, as he introduces the UK’s first systematic investment trust focused on U.S. value equities. The BlackRock American Income Trust aims to deliver long-term capital growth and attractive income through a risk-controlled, data-driven strategy. By combining big data, AI, and human insight, the trust offers broad diversification, consistent returns at low cost — making it a compelling choice for income-focused investors seeking exposure to the world’s most dominant equity market.

Workshop Objective: By the end of this session, you will be able to describe how systematic strategies in equities can support client goals for income, diversification, and long-term portfolio growth.

The portfolio manager of Smithson Investment Trust will describe what his team looks for in terms of quality companies, and the investment process they use to profit from identifying small and mid cap companies that they expect to eventually become large companies.

Workshop Objective: To enable attendees to identify the investment process and stock selection criteria to generate profits from high quality, growing small and mid cap companies

Company Profile: Smithson Investment Trust aims to deliver long-term capital growth from a concentrated portfolio of the world's best small and mid-sized companies. The manager, Simon Barnard, follows the Fundsmith strategy of seeking to buy good companies – those with strong and sustainable competitive advantages, high returns on invested capital, capable management, low debt, and the ability to grow. The aim is to invest at reasonable valuations and be a long-term shareholder.
www.smithson.co.uk

We’ve moved past peak interest rates and with a dislocation between share valuations and the true value of underlying property assets, real estate equities look well placed. Find out how we’re selectively targeting value in key markets.

•    Real estate equities often outperform broader equities once we past the peak in interest rates
•    Earnings growth continues to be the main driver
•    Selectivity is key – why we focus on well managed quality businesses in the right sectors and locations.
•    We see little oversupply in key markets and rental growth is being delivered. There is a positive outlook for sectors like logistics, data centres, retail warehousing, best in class CBD offices and prime retail in tourist hotspots.

Workshop Objectives:
•    Understand drivers of real estate performance
•    Gain insight into the equity market’s valuation of this asset class and the opportunities for total return
•    M&A : learn how private equity is forcing REITs to improve their returns on capital employed

Company Profile: TR Property is a closed-ended investment trust. It has focused solely on property investing for more than 40 years, producing a record of steady, benchmark-beating returns.
The trust makes it easy to gain broad and diverse exposure to the UK and European commercial property sector, with one click. 
Our objective is to maximise returns by investing in the shares of property companies and property-related businesses across Europe as well as owning physical commercial properties in the UK (up to 15% of assets).