Uncovering Trusts – JPMorgan European Discovery Trust (JEDT)

In this episode, our director of content for investment companies, Milosz Papst, talks about JPMorgan European Discovery Trust (JEDT). He starts by introducing the trust before highlighting why now could be an interesting time to look at the company. Firstly, it invests in an attractively priced asset class that has been out of favour but has delivered strong returns over the long term. Secondly, JEDT’s performance has improved under a relatively new management team. Milosz highlights that the managers seek ‘hidden gems’, which are attractively valued, high-quality companies with the potential to be the large market leaders of tomorrow. Their investment process combines screening, fundamental research and risk management, which includes the use of JPMorgan’s proprietary data systems. Changes have been made to the portfolio to reduce exposure to macroeconomic risk and increase the focus on bottom-up stock selection.

Milosz also explains why JEDT’s managers have a positive outlook on European small-cap stocks and what could cause an improvement in sentiment towards this part of the global market. He then moves onto the trust’s portfolio, highlighting some of its structural growth themes and discussing some recent transactions. Milosz provides details on the performance improvement, along with some of the stock contributors. At the end of 2025, JEDT had outperformed its benchmark, the MSCI Europe ex UK Small Cap Index, over the last one and three years. Also, within the three funds in the AIC European Smaller Companies sector, the trust’s NAV total returns now rank first over the last one and three years, and second over the last five years. Milosz concludes by highlighting other features of JEDT, namely its dividend policy, narrowing discount and the use of gearing.

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About Uncovering Trusts: Uncovering Trusts is a podcast run by Edison analysts, which is released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.