Lindsell Train Global Equity: July 2026 fund update

• Michael Lindsell and Nick Train are seasoned investors with an established investment process and founded the Lindsell Train business in 2000

• The managers seek to invest in exceptional companies and own them for the long term

• Recent performance has been weaker than the fund’s earlier track record

• The fund does not currently feature on the Wealth Shortlist of funds chosen by our analysts for their long-term performance potential

How it fits in a portfolio

The Lindsell Train Global Equity fund aims to grow your investment over the long term by investing in a small number of companies from around the world. Developed markets, such as the UK and US, are the primary focus. The established investment process focuses on 'quality growth', which could work well alongside other investments focused on unloved companies with the potential to recover.

Manager

The fund was launched in 2011 by Michael Lindsell and Nick Train, who both have more than four decades of investment experience. Lindsell spent much of his earlier career investing in Japanese companies and worked in both Tokyo and Hong Kong. He became responsible for all global funds at GT Management and, when GT was bought by Invesco in 1998, became head of the combined global product team.

Train was previously Head of Global Equities at M&G Investment Management, where he'd worked since 1998. Before that he spent 17 years at GT Management in various senior roles including investment director and chief investment officer for Pan-Europe.

James Bullock joined the firm in 2010 as an analyst, before being promoted to co-manager in 2015.

The fund managers are also responsible for other funds and investment trusts focused on areas such as the UK, North America, and Japan, which all invest using a similar process. Given the overlap in investment process, we’re comfortable they can handle these responsibilities.

Process

The Lindsell Train investment philosophy stems from the belief that there are only a handful of great companies in the world. These are the ones they want to invest in, particularly when their true value is not realised by other investors. They’ve established a repeatable investment process to hunt down these exceptional companies, and it's used across all the funds they manage.

The managers invest in financially robust companies with characteristics that are hard to replicate, such as strong brands, heritage, or sports franchises. Whilst not a requirement, many of the fund’s investments have high levels of founder family ownership, which can help align the interests of all investors.

The fund typically invests in between 20 and 35 companies. This concentrated approach means each investment can have a greater impact on performance, both positively and negatively, so is higher risk.

Most of these 'exceptional' companies tend to be larger and are based in developed markets, but the managers also have the flexibility to invest in higher-risk smaller companies. US companies make up half of the fund, although this is less than the fund’s benchmark. A quarter of the fund invests in UK companies, with the rest invested in Europe and Japan.

The fund invests across a number of sectors, with consumer companies, financials, and communication services all featuring prominently. The managers don't invest much in pure technology companies, preferring to invest in heritage companies that can exploit technology to improve their service, such as entertainment company Walt Disney. They don't invest in industries that require large amounts of capital, such as energy, commodities and mining.

The managers invest for the long term, which means they rarely makes changes to the fund. This helps keep costs down and enables the profits from their companies to compound over time. Only one change was made to the fund in the past year, with the managers selling their small investment in Japanese drinks company Ito En.

Please note, as this is an offshore fund you aren’t normally entitled to compensation through the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Culture

Nick Train and Michael Lindsell are founders and two of the major owners of the Lindsell Train business. We view this positively as ownership of the business aligns their long-term incentives with the interests of investors. The distinct investment philosophy they’ve created runs strongly through all their funds and trusts, with the entire business geared towards investing the ‘Lindsell Train way’.

The team spend a lot of their time reading, learning, and compiling information on companies they invest in as well as those on their watchlist. They’ve tended not to recruit experienced people, preferring to develop graduates who can be moulded into the Lindsell Train way of thinking.

Our due diligence on the Lindsell Train business previously highlighted some areas for improvement in the firm's corporate governance processes. We’re pleased to report that the firm has made enhancements to their risk management processes, and we’re now satisfied they have robust governance oversight in place.

ESG Integration

All Lindsell Train funds seek to invest in exceptional companies for the long term. These companies tend to be well-managed with responsible business practices. Lindsell Train fund managers avoid capital intensive industries (such as energy, commodities, and mining companies) and those judged to be sufficiently detrimental to society that they may be vulnerable to burdensome regulation or litigation (such as tobacco, gambling, and arms manufacturers).

Fund managers are responsible for voting and engagement. Their long-term approach means they’re generally supportive of company management teams. If the fund managers disagree with the management team’s approach, they’ll try to influence the company to adopt a different course of action if it’s in clients’ interests.

Voting and engagement case studies are available in both the firm’s annual Stewardship Report and its ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) & Engagement Report. The firm’s full voting history is available on its website, although no rationales are provided.

It’s important to remember that while the fund managers integrate ESG into the process and believe such issues can present long-term risks to a company, this fund isn’t focussed on sustainability.

Cost

The fund is available to HL clients for an ongoing annual charge of 0.53%, which is 0.15% lower than the standard ongoing charge of 0.68%. The HL platform fee of up to 0.35% per year also applies, except in the HL Junior ISA, where no platform fee applies.

Note that charges may be taken from capital. This can increase any income paid by the fund, but it might reduce the potential for capital growth.

Performance

Since launch in 2011, the fund has delivered returns of 375.93%*. While this is ahead of the average fund in the IA Global peer group, which returned 313.00%, it trails the 522.47% growth of the MSCI World benchmark. Weaker performance over the past couple of years has impacted the fund’s longer-term track record. Past performance isn’t a guide to the future.

The managers' focus on high-quality companies means the fund’s tended to provide some shelter from the worst stock market conditions. However, it’s tended to lag when markets rise sharply in a short period of time. This has been the case recently, as the fund has trailed the strong growth of the global stock market.

The last five years have been particularly challenging and in the year to the end of June 2026, the fund fell 10.66%. This is in contrast to the benchmark, which rose 25.77%, and the average peer, which returned 21.25%. This is partly because the fund’s quality-focused investment style has been out of favour, which has also impacted others that invest in a similar way.

Some of the fund’s investments fell in value over the past 12 months, including two of their largest investments, UK businesses RELX and London Stock Exchange Group. Their investments in US companies Fair Isaac and Intuit also lost value. These companies were all branded as ‘artificial intelligence (AI) losers’, whose businesses would suffer as AI tools become more widely used. The managers disagree with this assessment and believe AI will actually enhance the business models of these companies in the long run, so retain their investments. Another of their largest investments, the Japanese gaming company Nintendo, suffered as sales figures fell below expectations.

Some investments performed well for the fund though, including e-commerce giant eBay, biotechnology company Thermo Fisher, and the UK’s Games Workshop.

We recently met with the team to discuss performance. Despite the recent struggles, the managers remain committed to their investment process that’s delivered strong returns for investors during the fund’s first 10 years.

Over the longer term, we expect the fund to do better when quality investing is in favour. If the recent trend reverses, it should outperform valued-focused funds, though this isn’t guaranteed. Investment styles go in and out of favour, which is why we suggest investors build diversified portfolios with exposure to a variety of asset classes, styles, sectors, and countries.

Due to the concentrated nature of the fund, its performance can differ meaningfully from the broader market, both positively and negatively. This approach has delivered strong periods of performance in the past but, as we’ve seen in the past few years, this won’t always be the case. The fund isn’t currently on the Wealth Shortlist. Performance has disappointed in recent years and we’re mindful of the impact the fund’s concentrated approach has had, and can have, on performance.