Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies Trust’s (IPU) managers have a simple aim: to achieve top quartile performance over a cycle with belowaverage volatility compared to their peers. Historically, they have achieved this and, whilst the current market conditions have seen the trust struggle relative to peers, this does not mean that over the medium to long term their pattern of top-quartile returns could not return. Jonathan Brown and Robin West have worked together since 2014, and as a management team have applied the same investment philosophy consistently over this time. Looking to buy and hold companies which can double their profits over five years, they are unashamedly growth investors. However, they are perhaps more “valuation aware” than many competitors, tending to trim especially strong performers and recycle capital into more attractively valued opportunities. Within the portfolio, the managers believe that any COVID recovery, if it comes, will be rapid, and so have been seeking out high-quality ‘self-help’ companies who would be beneficiaries. These companies represent just under half of the portfolio and constitute one end of the barbell approach that the team have adopted. At the other end of the barbell are the defensive growth companies which have long been a part of the portfolio. IPU’s yield premium to peers and the market remains: the board have amended their dividend policy which will see a dividend of at least 15p this year (a yield of 3.7%), but also seek to increase dividends annually.